Austrian topfruit export organisation EVA is set to make its first shipments to the Middle East and northern Africa this season, as it seeks to expand its business outside traditional markets.
The company, which represents around 75 per cent of all apple producers in Austria, will make deliveries to the United Arab Emirates and Libya, while it is also aiming to increase exports to emerging markets in eastern Europe and Russia.
According to EVA’s managing director, Roman Seligo, although the company already exports substantial volumes of apples to key European markets, including Germany, the UK, Spain, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and the Scandinavian countries, it is keen to achieve greater expansion.
“We have relatively small areas – on average 4.7ha – of high quality apple production, so we are looking for markets where good quality is demanded and where we will be able to leverage our strength,” he explains.
As well as the Arab countries, Mr Seligo views both Russia, which the company currently supplies, and Ukraine as having strong future potential for sales of EVA apples.
“We have been supplying Russia for a number of years now, but we believe there are opportunities for growth there,” he says.
EVA’s associated growers have produced some 140,000 tonnes of apples this season – a 10 per cent rise compared with the previous campaign – of which 70,000 tonnes will be exported.
The full version of this article appears in the November/December 2009 issue of Eurofruit Magazine.
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