From dozens of varieties and colours of tomatoes to organic and ‘forgotten’ vegetables. Last Thursday and Friday, BelOrta held its annual product show. “During this edition, we showed all the products in our range,” says Benny Cuypers. “One of the largest innovations is the new product packaging. Using less plastic is the trend, and we want to respond to this with our new packaging. The clam-shells have been replaced by top-seal, but we’re also working on developing a packaging made of cardboard. With cardboard packaging, we’re still in the development stage, but we want to commercialise this next year.”
Benny Cuypers and Jan van Bavel of Boerenbond
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Ease and convenience
The ever-changing needs of consumers are also being considered. Consumers now have a more varied diet, and they’ve become more demanding compared to 20 years ago. “We eat with our eyes nowadays, so the food needs to look beautiful. Moreover, our meals have to be prepared as quickly as possible. This is reflected in a whole range of convenience options from BelOrta, including peeled asparagus,” according to one visitor of the product show.
Novelties
At the entrance of the product show, BelOrta’s entire tomato range has been displayed. Vegetable mixes such as the mixed coloured carrots, as well as broccolini and flower sprouts, are also becoming increasingly more popular. “Besides, we’re responding to the demand for sweet potato. We now have Belgian sweet potato that’s available in one Belgian supermarket. We’re trying to be dedicated to local-for-local, and we’re taking good steps with the Belgian sweet potato,” Benny says. “The company is also very much dedicated to the BelOrta brand, which is becoming more and more popular with consumers as an established value. Combined with the familiar Flandria brand, we’ve noticed a synergetic effect, the brands boost each other.”
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Jo Lambrecht
“The system is working perfectly”
Brand-new manager Philippe Appeltans was also present at the product show, as was co-manager Chris de Pooter. “Today is my 35th working day,” Philippe says. “I was already familiar with the sector, but I’m still surprised how well the system works. We now work with 1,275 different growers who are represented by various consultative bodies – including PAGs (product advice groups), TAGs (growers’ advice groups) and the board. There’s a lot of involvement. It’s important to know what’s going on with the growers. The all-in, all-out principle also continues to function every day. The system is just working very well, as is selling by auction combined with other methods of selling. Yet we have to continue to evaluate everything, although there will always be room for an auction clock.”
Philippe Appeltans
Club varieties
In the top fruit range, focus was on club varieties from BelOrta’s assortment. “The importance of club varieties is becoming larger and larger. We respond to this with Kanzi, Greenstar and Migo. Besides good yields from Kanzi and Greenstar (the apple that doesn’t change colour), we also have a rising volume regarding the Migo pear this year. Now that Russia has been lost, and the boycott that’s never ending, we’ll have to go to different markets such as Asia and South America. Packaging play a big part in this as well. We have a red packaging for top fruit for the Chinese market, but we also have a new box for pears instead of the crate that was meant for the Russian market in the past,” says Miguel Demaeght.
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For more information:
Sofie Lambrecht
BelOrta
+32 15 56 52 92
sofie.lambrecht@belorta.be
www.belorta.be