"Going directly to the customer with the suppliers"

Straight from the source to the customer, that was the philosophy when founding Four Seasons Fruit Supply (FSFS) in Barendrecht two years ago. The product assortment has now expanded, but this vision is still going strong. "We don't want to become the biggest, but be amazing in the products we carry," say Medhat Samir and Wim Bezemer. "We work with good shippers and go to the customer with them. It works! As a small company we now import around 150 containers of grapes and 150 containers of citrus annually."

Although the trade in the beginning was still mostly lemons and grapes, the exotics category at FSFS has also grown strongly. As of this year the importer has started importing overseas avocados (Hass and Greenskin) from Africa, Peru and Mexico. "The first twenty containers have already arrived. For the last three weeks we have had a programme with a Mexican farm that will foresee us of around fifty containers of avocado until January 2019. We have already received the first three containers and our supermarket customers responded very enthusiastically."

The avocado market dropped to an unusually low level in recent weeks, but the prices have now revived and we are expecting a further increase for the coming weeks," says Medhat. The same goes for the market for limes that was at a dramatically low level in recent weeks, but has now somewhat recovered. "We receive around five containers per week of Brazilian limes under our own brand Frutador / Louise and as of the last month and a half we started a programme with Mexican limes, of which we will receive thirty containers until the end of the year."

FSFS mainly gets their grapes from India and Egypt, supplemented by supply from Brazil and Peru. "It was a great season for Indian grapes this year compared to last year. The volumes were a lot lower and this resulted in a stable market situation throughout the season," says Wim. The Egyptian grape season has also been completed to the satisfaction of FSFS. The importer also buys a large volume of pomegranates and sweet potatoes from Egypt. "We carry sweet potatoes all year round from the United States and Egypt, with Egypt being the main supplier from the start of August and the US taking over from January on wards. We grow the American varieties such as Covington and Beauregard in Egypt too."

FSFS completes the assortment with lemon, which they buy from Argentina and Turkey. The FSFS also has the licenses needed to import Chinese garlic all year round and the company carries mangoes from Peru and Ecuador. As of September the importer will also start importing bananas from Ecuador and to a lesser extent from Costa Rica. "The Ecuadorian bananas are more popular among our customers," explains Medhat. The importer isn't entering the ripening business just yet. "That's a different kettle of fish."

The goal for FSFS is primarily to further expand the current activities. "Thankfully we have a wide customer base, consisting of European supermarkets, (cash&carry) wholesalers and food service customers. The market is changing and it's up to us to play into this in the right manner. Besides the quality policy the MVO policy is increasingly important and that's a good thing. Without a customer there can be no supplier but if there is no supplier there can be no customer either. This is why we work directly from the source. That's our strength!"

For more information:

Four Seasons Fruit Supply
Gebroken Meeldijk 52
2991 VD Barendrecht
Tel: +31 (0)180 697 969
medhat@fsfs.nl
www.fsfs.nl