A Spanish apple producer is fighting to reclaim its share of the domestic market after a recent study revealed that one in every two apples on sale in Spanish produce aisles is imported. The country’s biggest apple producer, Lleida-based Nufri, has launched the first ever campaign appealing to consumers to buy home-grown apples.
Over the next two months, every apple sold under the company’s Livinda and Delissium brands will include on its label one of the 200 most popular Christian names in Spain in a bid to highlight their provenance, quality and flavour.
The company hopes the inclusion of names such Carlos, María, Juan, Carmen, Patxi and Jordi will help consumers to identify home-grown fruit and appeal to their nationalistic instinct.
The company will also produce labels featuring the names ‘mum’, ‘dad’, ‘grandma’ and other relatives to encourage family members to purchase fruit for each other.
Nufri’s commercial director Ignasi Argilés said Spanish consumers lacked the curiosity about the provenance of their food that existed in other neighbouring countries.
“The quality, texture and flavour of our apples is absolutely unrivalled but people don’t know they are Spanish. Our growers put a lot of passion and effort goes into producing them and if consumers don’t appreciate this then all that effort goes to waste,” Argilés said.
In order to support the campaign, Nufri is launching a competition with the chance to win a trip to the heartland of Spanish apple production: Lleida and Soria, where Livinda an Delissium apples are produced.
“We think it’s important for people to know what is behind a product and the best way of doing this is to show them how it is produced,” said Argilés. “Ultimately, it is about winning over their hearts.”
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