Small (literally) but great fruits are being reaped with the Berry project, which Spreafico embarked on in 2013 and that climaxed in 2020 with the launch of the I Piccoli line that in 2021 achieved a turnover of 20 million euros, promoting its all-Italian production of small fruits. “We received an excellent response from large-scale retail customers, who shared with us the importance of an Italian product and understand the need to create display areas dedicated to this product category in order to develop it in an optimum manner,” explained the berry business unit manager, Gianluigi Bertelli, “In just a few years, we have seen an important change in the behaviour of large-scale retail customers especially: we observed that, at the same price, buyers prefer an Italian product and certain chains have confirmed their willingness even to spend more than on an imported product. This is an era-defining breakthrough for the sector”. The Berry project therefore continues apace. Thanks to the 95 farmers involved, for a total of 150 hectares between northern and southern Italy, the 2021 harvest amounted to approximately 7,000 quintals of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and red currants, in addition to over 3,500 quintals of strawberries and wild strawberries, which the company does not include in the berry world. However, as the goals are far more ambitious, the group has decided to invest further in small fruit farming, including in the farms owned by the Spreafico family in central and northern Italy
The first focus fruit is the blueberry, the berry that is best loved by Italians (and others): 2021 production amounted to 3,300 quintals, but the target is to double this figure over the next four years, by expanding the production calendar (which currently runs from March to October), through the use of different farming areas and varieties. From 2023, hectares dedicated to blueberry farming will be added to the company’s farms in northern Italy and Latina. The aim is to succeed in providing the Italian product all year round, and consequently reduce the presence of imported products.
“Our second priority is to increase the production of raspberries, a product that we believe has great growth potential and for which we are currently able to guarantee the production and distribution of the Italian product 12 months a year,” adds Bertelli, “In addition, we are not excluding blackberries from this Italian supply chain project. We have set ourselves the target of minimising imports from non-European countries (like Mexico and Guatemala) and with new varieties and new farming techniques we will be able to supply Italian blackberries seven or eight months a year.” Lastly, the group has also launched a strawberry project, in partnership with an Italian university, testing new varieties to propose autonomously to producers.
The Spreafico group has taken on the berry sector with a clear approach characterised by specialisation and planning, and with the aim of becoming increasingly vertically integrated into the supply chain. By drawing on the expertise it has accrued in the farming fiend on its own property and the well-consolidated relationships with Italian and foreign producers, the group has invested in cultivating a specialised team consisting in a group of agricultural chemists to assist producers in forest fruit farming and based at a production facility in Verona, an area with a tradition of red berry farming and a strategic importance in terms of logistics. In addition, it has opened a facility dedicated to the packaging of small fruits in Latina, in order to facilitate their distribution in central and southern Italy. Here technology has allowed the company to increasingly supply a product that is consistent not only in terms of colour and ripeness, but also in terms of packs, gauge and weight. “We work constantly, studying and analysing market trends, emerging needs and the requirements of our partner producers,” emphasises Bertelli, “In addition, by being an active part of “exclusive” clubs specialising in each reference, we are able to test the potential of each variety and those that will be developed.”
Export-ready Italian blueberries
The development path of the Berry project looks beyond national borders. Although, until now, Spreafico has not considered exportation, as production was insufficient for taking on foreign markets, the situation has changed. “By achieving the ambitious targets that we have set ourselves, we believe that we will be able to start exploiting blueberries by knowingly exploiting certain production “windows”,” concludes Bertelli.
