Israel-based export company Agrexco is aiming to maintain its position as a world leading fresh produce marketer by highlighting several innovative features of its Carmel brand, which offers a full range of unique packaging types, tasty varieties and health-driven products.
The company recently released a new booklet under the title ‘Carmel Innovation, Always Something Extra’, emphasising the work it does hand-in-hand with growers and research and development institutes as well as its use of cutting-edge agricultural technology. “Agrexco is always the first to invest in innovation,” says Rani Friedlander, vice-president at Agrexco. “We are always looking for a niche in the market, particularly because we often have to transport our produce from a distance, meaning higher prices.”
New and unique packaging is one of the main areas that the group has focused on, with a range of different designs to cater for each individual product. These include the Pomegranate gift pack, available from mid-October to the end of January, with individual pomegranates packed in a ‘purse’, and shrink-wrapped peppers to show off three different colours in an environmentally friendly manner.
Additionally, a large range of Carmel tomatoes are available in innovative packaging, including Tango cherry tomatoes and Trio cocktail tomatoes for children, both of which are also available in organic ranges utilising Carmel Bio-Top containers.
According to Mr Friedlander, the new designs have been brought in more with the produce in mind than the packaging itself. “The different packaging types are not the actual emphasis, the different products are,” he tells Eurofruit Magazine. “The innovations we have made in our packaging merely differentiates products from one another and emphasises different qualities, sizes and branding. Whether it is shrink-wrap or flow-wrap packaging, it is not important, the product is,” he says, before adding: “All of the packaging is environmentally friendly, which is a wide focus for Agrexco, and something which goes beyond just these new innovative products.”
Taste, of course, is a crucial factor in the Carmel portfolio, and the extra-tasty range looks to provide consumers with a different option when purchasing tomatoes, peppers, mangoes, apricots and plums. “These are special varieties. Vine & Dine cherry tomatoes offer an on-the-vine product with an extended shelf-life and better taste, and our Yuval & Orly strawberries have great taste and unique shape,” explains Mr Friedlander. “We are also the only producer to offer the Ever-Green pepper, which stays green, sweet and tasty. In that sense, we are again not competing with the mass market, but are offering a niche product.”
Innovation in the sphere of healthy eating is high on the agenda and is an important part of the Carmel brand, with examples such as the Plumgranate – an aromatic and juicy fruit that boasts more antioxidants than pomegranates – and the recently marketed individual Pomegranate rubies. However, the market has not always been ready to embrace health-driven products, suggests Mr Friedlander.
“Despite us developing products such as tomatoes that are high in lycopene and the antioxidant-rich pomegranates and plumgranates, the market has not always been ready for these products,” he says. “Over the next few years, hopefully, customers will be ready to buy healthier products.”
So what has given the Carmel brand an advantage over its competitors? According to Mr Freidlander, it is down to the sheer range of products that the trademark has to offer. “Every customer can find two to three products that are good for them. Other companies specialise in certain products, whereas we offer a wide range,” he says. “We do lots of work with multiples, and they are looking for one source that can offer different products at different price levels for different customers.”
What’s more, the current economic crisis has apparently done nothing to halt Agrexco’s determination to improve the Carmel brand, Mr Freidlander adds, with the group instead opting to focus even more on innovation and expansion rather than consolidating its product range.
No comments yet