Lennart Middelburg and Karim Benzebir are part of Eporifrutas' Dutch sales office in Poeldijk. This week, Ricardo Pereira, originally from Portugal, joined the team. "We keep almost no stock, but work with numerous importers, suppliers, and growers, allowing us to deliver exactly what the customer is looking for," Lennart says. "One week the customer needs melons and ice lettuce, the next week oranges and ginger. That interaction works incredibly well."
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Lennart Middelburg and Ricardo Pereira
Eporifrutas is a subsidiary of its parent company in Portugal, where the three Dutch brothers Maikel, Bjorn, and Gerardus Brands are at the helm. The group includes its own wholesale operation in the Lisbon market, its own melon cultivation in Spain and Portugal, and its own transport division, operating a fleet of more than 30 trucks under the name Fresh Freight Europe. "With Eporifrutas Netherlands, we have our own BV and the freedom to run our own trading operation, while of course making enthusiastic use of the synergy benefits offered by the group," Lennart says.
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Supplying cruise ships
"Eporifrutas Portugal recently opened a new warehouse just outside the Lisbon market, where export orders for cruise ships, among others, are prepared. In the Netherlands, we can serve customers who want to load at one location from our warehouse at Veleka Logistics in Poeldijk. There, we have two loading docks, 500 m² of conditioned space and office space, which enables us to cross-dock and handle storage and transhipment for customers," Lennart continues.
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"Our focus is really on day trading. In Moldova, we have a regular retail customer, but otherwise, we only focus on wholesalers. We have customers from Ireland to Norway and Cyprus, in other words, throughout Europe, excluding the German-speaking countries. We also do some sourcing for our company in Portugal, and thanks to them, we have easy access to Spanish and Portuguese products. Our own melons are largely sold locally, but we are currently fully engaged in Portuguese pumpkins. And with Ricardo joining us, we will certainly explore which other import lines could be interesting."
Flying start
"We had an immediate flying start this summer. We sold a lot of overseas citrus, for example. In November, things were a bit quieter, but that was the case for everyone in the trade. In the meantime, we are back in full swing with Spanish vegetables. Spanish cucumbers and aubergines are currently in high demand, but we basically sell the full range, from tomatoes to passion fruit. Because of my background in overseas trade, customers quickly find us for products like lemons and avocados, but we are now also seeing demand for overseas grapes increase."
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"More and more suppliers are approaching us, and the goal is to continue growing steadily in the coming years. Initially, I thought that trading Dutch broccoli and onions, for example, would not be particularly interesting for us, but you realise that with good contacts at the source, you can easily co-sell these products as well. We do stick to the rule that we only sell full pallets, but our range is constantly expanding. For example, we already have our own import line with limes from Colombia, and we are also exploring whether we can start our own import line for other products we sell in significant volumes, such as Peruvian grapes, melons from Brazil, and pineapples from Costa Rica."
© Eporifrutas NederlandFor more information:
Lennart Middelburg
Eporifrutas Nederland
Tel: +31 6 51 55 28 23
[email protected]
