Relocation, expansion and new packaging at Elite Foods

Elite Groenten & Fruit is an exporter from Sint-Katelijne-Waver. About 15 years ago, the company was established in the Netherlands, but after five years or so, the brothers Zafer and Hassan Tuncer Akarca decided to continue the operations in Belgium. "We already got a lot of our produce from Belgium, so we were closer to the source," Hassan says. Elite Foods was based at the BelOrta auction, but in February of this year they moved to a new building on the other side of the auction.

The brothers Hassan and Zafer Akarca

Tomatoes
"Our office space in particular is larger. In addition, we had new cooling built", Hassan indicates. "At our previous location, we had three bridges, now five. So that gives us more room to manoeuvre. We are very satisfied with the new location." Initially, the focus was just on tomatoes, but over the years the product range expanded quite a bit. "It all started with Elite tomatoes. These tomatoes are of good quality, which is very important to us. That's why we gave our company that name", says Hassan. "We now offer many tomato varieties, including specialities. Also various other vegetables, and some fruit. But we're still tomato specialists."

Elite mainly supplies to Turkish buyers. "We are Turkish ourselves, which makes doing business easier. Over the years, we have established trusted connections with our regular buyers. There are other exporters supplying to Germany, but we attract different customers. Apart from Germany, we also supply to Austrian wholesalers, and recently we've been focusing on England. We're often found by customers through word of mouth. With our five trucks, we largely handle distribution of our products ourselves."

New packaging
The exporter has recently begun to deliver part of its tomatoes in new packaging, with the Elite brand on it. "We found a grower who cultivated a lovely variety, and we wanted to market it in a special way. Customers are very enthusiastic about it." Last week the market was calm, but things are looking up again. "Demand is good. It's just the prices that are low. You see many growers having an increasingly hard time."

Hassan looks to the future with optimism. "Together with my brother and our eight colleagues, we are optimistic about trade continuing to go well. So far, our volumes have increased each year, and hopefully this will continue. It's important to us to serve our current customers well. So that's what we'll keep focusing on."

For more information:
Elite Groenten & Fruit BVBA
Mechelsesteenweg 120
2860 Sint-Katelijne-Waver
Tel: +32 (0)15633746
Fax: +32 (0)15637055
www.elitefoods.be
info@elitefoods.be