A new idea from Belgium is brining produce closer to consumers and helping them achieve their 5-A-DAY. Filip Pittoors, a grower of Flandria Pittoresk vine tomatoes from Duffel near Antwerp set up a tomato vending machine on a busy street close to his business premises in town.
He adapted a vending machine specifically for the purpose and it now contains 50 compartments to dispense 650g trusses of the Pittoresk variety in cardboard punnets. Pittors checks and refills the machine every day and his fruit is kept at a constant temperature of 15°C.
Pricing is based on local auction levels and Pittoors adds VAT, a small margin and the cost of packaging. This week his fruit was selling at just e0.60.
According to the enterprising grower, the initiative is purely promotional as he is one of the pioneers of Pittoresk. But he also points out that healthy-eating initiatives at local schools prompted him to come up with the invention.
The machine has been operational since June and is also proving a valuable means of bridging the gap between producer and consumer. Pittoors admits that he does not intend to compete with the retail trade in his home town, but sees this latest enterprise as an additional and extremely convenient outlet for consumers. So far trade is predominantly with local customers, passers-by and particularly schoolchildren and cyclists.
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