Dole salad Saba Scandinavia

Dole Food Company's Scandinavian fresh convenience products division Saba Fresh Cuts says it has seen strong growth within the salads category across the region since the start of the year.

Stefan Grahn, Saba's managing director, told Eurofruit Magazine the company was seeing an increase in sales again for both mixed salads and baby-leaf products across Scandinavia.

'We see stable growth in retail in Sweden, but the most pronounced change has been the products finding a place in Finland and Denmark,' he revealed.

With Dansk Supermarked now a major retailer of Dole salads, the division has reportedly achieved growth of almost 20 per cent in Denmark, while the Finnish market has apparently shown total growth of 45 per cent, including private label.

'We are also happy to see that our launch of the product through Rimi in the Baltic states has proven to be a good decision,' said Mr Grahn.

Following recent breakthroughs in the preparation of washed baby leaves, Saba has been able to guarantee even more stable quality and a product that is ready to eat.

'We recently signed a major contract to supply a new private label line of washed baby leaves complementing our own existing Dole line,' Mr Grahn added.

'This new contract is one of the largest orders we have received in the past few years and will start in October 2010.'