Fruits & Compagnie, a fruit marketing and production company based in Nîmes and Sisteron (France), has announced that it will take over the marketing of products from Alpes Coop Fruits (Hautes-Alpes). As part of the Syndicat "Vergers des Alpes de Haute Durance", which holds the PGI and Label Rouge quality labels for Golden and Gala, the two companies share a common desire to modernize and promote the Alpine region. Therefore, by pooling their efforts and resources, they will be working on "the renewal of the orchard, supported by experimentation with new rootstocks, recent Golden clones, adapted planting densities and management methods, increased technical support, and the synergy of their packing stations, as well as communication and marketing campaigns with French distributors from November around the Alpes de Haute Durance PGI and the Pear."
"Gradually increase the share of Haute Durance PGI Golden in French consumption"
"From 2024 onwards, we will be responsible for marketing the entire apple production of both companies, to gradually increase the share of Haute Durance Golden PGI in French consumption". As a result, 470 hectares of Golden PGI (16,000 tons) and 40 hectares of Gala PGI (1,500 tons) will now be marketed by Fruits & Compagnie, which also wants to develop the Evelina apple. To date, 10 ha have already been planted by Alpes Coop Fruits growers. While there are several bicolored varieties on the market, Bertrand Gassier, head of Fruits & Compagnie, believes that Evelina has many assets, including being "very well adapted to the high altitude terroir", which is known for giving the fruit "more sugar, crunchiness and a higher dry matter content".
Pear: developing the orchard and modernizing packaging facilities
Fruits & Compagnie, which has been marketing the pear production of the group (230 ha, including 75 ha less than five years old) for the past 3 years, has told Alpes Coop Fruits about its development plans for the new FRED and QTEE varieties. "We already have around a hundred hectares planted with these two varieties," says Bertrand Gassier, who sees real potential for the French pear, given that "more than 1 in 2 pears consumed in France today are imported". The development of the pear orchard is being supported by the modernization of the plant's facilities, with a complete overhaul of the grading and packaging lines at Fruits & Cie's Alpine plant: Peyron des Alpes in Ventavon.
For more information:
Fruits & Compagnie
Bertrand Gassier
Tel: 04 66 38 44 00
[email protected]