A Sicilian in Dublin can make the difference

Some of the key elements behind a company's long-term approach to the market are to be found in producing high quality fruit and vegetables, meeting their stakeholders, and being in line with environmental policies.

"Having one foot in the future is not only a communication-oriented concept but a requirement to ensure business continuity", asserted Angelo and Vincenzo Dipasquale, creators of the brand Donnalia.

"We believe in creating partnerships with stakeholders who have the skills and capability to ensure long-lasting supplies into foreign markets, - explain the brothers - because this represents an added value for our products. For this reason, we started an active collaboration with a company, The Lemon Tree Store Ldt, in the Irish market. The owner is a young compatriot of ours who works in this sector, in Dublin: his name is Gerlando Agrò, and he is responsible for marketing our products in some niche supermarket chains".

Angelo and Vincenzo Dipasquale 

“I started working with operators in the Dublin fruit and vegetable market," Agrò explained over the phone directly from Ireland, "but that ended some time ago. Today I am a privileged intermediary for some Irish retail businesses and I only distribute Italian products which are of significant commercial interest".

Gerlando Agrò

"My clients are niche supermarkets - continued the entrepreneur - constantly looking for a healthy product, beautiful to see, good to eat. Who better than Donnalia combines these elements in the Italian fruit and vegetable industry? So far, the most popular products have been yellow peaches, nectarines, Italian grapes and Sicilian red grapes. Prices in niche stores were valued 2.95 Euro per kg for peaches and nectarines; same for the white and red grapes.

"The appealing Triple A peaches and nectarines packaged in 4-fruit baskets have been particularly successful," revealed the distributor, "but also the ones available in containers. With a five day delivery you can expect only the best quality, especially for a product that does not have a durable shelf life; for this reason we decided to end the peach and nectarine campaign just a few days ago, with 8-10 platforms per week. Demand trends and requests for the grapes were also very good, especially with regards to 750 gr cartons".

Donnalia Oranges 

"In mid-November - concluded Agrò - we will be working together with Donnalia on the first oranges from Catania, before moving on to the red orange variety, which will allow us to supply both the fresh market and the cold-pressed juices vending machines industry. We expect to import about 50.000 kg of Sicilian oranges per month. We are therefore developing a promotional campaign in the stores, which will certainly satisfy our Irish consumers. The new communication campaign aims to raise awareness on environmental matters and to envision a plastic-free packaging also for the Irish Donnalia brand market, to be introduced as soon as possible.