Garden Frutta on a UK mission

At Macfrut in Italy earlier this month, delegates heard that despite good yields, Italian strawberry producers suffer from a shortage of labour and need to work on extending their season, concentrating on production of a handful of top-quality varieties that are also suitable for the export market. One company that already seems to be leading the way is Verona-based Garden Frutta.

The family business has three partners; Carlo Mosca and his nephews Matteo Mosca and Renzo Passerini. The business was founded 18 years ago and has expanded steadily since then to become not just a grower, but also a marketeer and exporter of strawberries, other soft fruit and mushrooms.

Garden Frutta has three farms in the Trentino area of northern Italy: six hectares on the shores of Lake Garda, 5ha in Bedollo and an investment two years ago in 8ha in Verona.

“Some 70 per cent of our production is destined for the Italian internal market,” says Matteo Mosca. “But we also export to Germany and to Spain.”

The company now has its sights set on developing the UK market. “We believe it is a good market for our fruit as the majority of our production is of Elsanta, which is obviously very well known in the UK.”

Mosca also points out that the UK is a market where consumption of soft fruit is increasing. “In fact the only thing that might concern us about supplying to the UK is volume,” says the 27-year-old who took over his father’s share in 1997 of the business started by his grandfather. “We have our own production, but not in the volumes required. However, we are already collaborating with four or five of our neighbouring producers in the Trentino area to boost our volumes and put us all in a better position.”

Garden Frutta, is also a trader and wholesaler on the market in Verona and is able to offer Italian strawberries 12 months of the year thanks to supply relationships with producers in Sicily and Naples. “We work with one large producer in Sicily and one in Basilicata as well as two in Campania,” explains Mosca.

Over the past 20 years, Italy has lost a lot of ground to Spain in terms of strawberry production for the wider EU market. “Spain is able to produce more cheaply than us, that is the main reason why,” says Mosca. But at Garden Frutta which actually exports to Spain, he is extremely optimistic for the future. “I have to be: I am young,” he says. “And we have a great product. Our Elsanta looks good, has great keeping quality and a rich red colour, but most of all it tastes superb. It is the best berry and you can really taste the difference.”

Product is available from the company’s Trentino farms from the end of May until October thanks to different micro-climates and cultivation at altitudes of 1,500m above sea level. “Our first priority is quality and continuity in our offer,” Mosca tells the FPJ Supplement. Once the autumn kicks in, sourcing moves further south to keep supplies going through the winter until Trentino is ready to come on stream again in the late spring.

Garden Frutta does not seem to have fallen victim to the much reported shortage of labour in horticulture industries around the EU member states and has good sources of skilled workers from Poland and Romania.

Now all that remains is for Italy and Garden Frutta to communicate their message in order to expand exports. “Italy is the land of flavour, that is our strength and that is the message which we need to make clear,” concludes Mosca.