Every winter, some 10,000 tons of apples and pears are stored in the cold stores of Léman Fruits in Perroy. The cold storage cells operate around the clock, consuming a lot of energy. The rising electricity costs will have a significant impact at fenaco Landesprodukte. "We are seeing a massive increase in electricity prices in the fruit storage area for fenaco country products. In 2023, costs will roughly double compared to 2022," Christian Bertholet, Category Manager Fruit at fenaco Landesprodukte explains.
At the Perroy site, annual electricity consumption is around two million kilowatt hours. Thus, the additional costs for electricity amount to about 120,000 Swiss francs. However, the price increase is cushioned specifically by the Vaud site's own production: Their photovoltaic system for self-supply was expanded in 2020. With a total area of 3,930 square meters and an annual yield of around 640,000 kilowatt hours, more than 30 percent of the electricity requirement is covered.
Union-Fruits in Charrat also relies on solar energy and covers 23 percent of its electricity needs from its own photovoltaic system. As in Perroy, the Valais performance center estimates the additional energy-related costs at over 100,000 francs.
In addition, the existing lighting in all Léman Fruits and Union-Fruits buildings has been replaced with LED lamps. With an annual saving of 100,000 kilowatt hours at each of the two sites, this measure helps to significantly increase energy efficiency.
Adjustment of storage costs
Although the costs cannot be fully passed on to the price of apples and pears, retailers have agreed to adjust their prices. "In our negotiations with retailers, we were able to agree that they would contribute a few centimes per kilo of fruit to cover storage costs," Christian Bertholet emphasizes.
If there is a blackout, no emergency generators will step in. "We are contending with a worst-case scenario with a maximum of four hours without power," explains Christian Bertholet. "The cold storage halls are optimally insulated. An outage of this size will not affect the quality of the fruit."
Moderate increase compared to the market
Energy-intensive companies in the food industry are particularly hard hit by these price increases. "Although the increases are significant, they are still moderate compared to the overall market," says Christian Bertholet. This is explained by the fact that AGROLA buys its electricity for the fenaco sites in a bundled and structured way - i.e. split - for a period of three years. This method has now proved its worth.
According to AGROLA, if the electricity had to be purchased right now, at market price, this would mean that prices would increase fivefold. The situation is different for the smaller companies: Because they cannot buy on the free market and have to purchase electricity from a basic level, they sometimes have to face massive price increases.
For more information:
www.fenaco-landesprodukte.ch/organisation/leman-fruits
/www.fenaco-landesprodukte.ch/organisation/union-fruits/