IT Maestri della Frutta Stefano Soli Valfrutta Vittorio Grotta Dole Gerhard Dichgans VOG Marlene

Stefano Soli of Valfrutta, Vittorio Grotta of Dole Italia and Gerhard Dichgans of Marlene / VOG at the launch event in Milan

Three of the leading names in Italy's fresh produce market – Dole, Marlene and Valfrutta – have formed an exclusive club for specialised fresh produce retailers in order to promote the value of their products to consumers.

The innovative new project, unveiled in Milan on Thursday 24 October, is called Maestri della Frutta (Masters of Fruit) and is designed to establish more of a direct link between those that produce and supply fruit and vegetables and those that distribute and consume them.

At the heart of the new initiative are Italy's finest greengrocers, who play a major role when it comes to communicating with consumers clearly and expertly, offering accurate information about a range of fresh produce, their specific organoleptic characteristics and the best ways of eating them.

'The Masters of Fruit project involves a large and qualified group of retailers composed initially of more than 100 professionals based in Emilia-Romagna, Veneto and Puglia, and particularly in the cities of Bologna, Verona and Bari, to whom we will shortly be adding another 120 in Forlì, Cesena, Rimini, Lecce and Taranto,' commented Dole Italia managing director Vittorio Grotta, who attended the launch event with Gerhard Dichgans, director of Marlene brand owner VOG and Stefano Soli, Valfrutta's commercial and marketing director.

By clubbing together in this way, Dole, Marlene and Valfrutta want to support and protect what remains a highly specialised sales channel for fresh produce sold throughout the Italian Peninsula. During the past year, in fact, the country's greengrocers have registered a slight but significant rise in market share and now represent 20 per cent of the total market – a figure which rises to 40 per cent when street vendors and street markets are also taken into account.

'We chose specialised retailers as partners in this project because of the appreciation these operators have shown for producer brands, which are the real flagships when it comes to the broad range of fresh produce offered by Dole, Marlene and Valfrutta,' explained Dichgans. 'We can guarantee a regular and continual supply of a complete range of high-quality products.'

The companies, which already have a clear, consolidated presence in the modern retail sector, are targeting growth in Italy's more traditional retail arena and will employ a variety of marketing methods in order to generate interest.

'The project that our three brands have agreed on will provide for innovative use of traditional, above-the-line mass communication tools – radio, television, billboards, print media, events – on a local level and selected in a flexible manner depending on the message we want to convey,' Soli revealed.

Below-the-line promotional activities will be managed by a team of qualified area managers who will be on hand help to those taking part whenever required.

Although the Masters of Fruit project will only be rolled out initially in Emilia-Romagna, Veneto and Puglia, the ultimate aim is for it to cover the whole of Italy within three years.