Buon giorno! Last week two of our European sales experts enjoyed an educational visit to Italy where they witnessed firsthand how La Dona’s fruit is received and distributed to wholesalers and retailers by our principal partner in Italy.
Marine-Alexandra Fuzier, La Dona Fruit’s Country Sales Manager for France; and Valentino Danza, La Dona Fruit’s Country Sales Manager for Spain, had the pleasure of touring the office and logistics facility of our main customer in Milan.
Located at the Ortomercato Milano wholesale market for over 20 years, our customer is a leading Italian importer and distributor of fresh fruit, including tropicals, exotics, and counter-seasonal produce.
Over the past month we’ve extended our relationship by transporting our pineapples and limes direct from our Rotterdam receiving warehouse to our customer’s logistics centre for distribution across Italy.
Have a look at La Dona’s limes in their coldstore:
Their 5,000m2 facility is equipped with 10 temperature-controlled loading and unloading bays, and 9 independent cold-storage units. The platform provides a 24-hour loading, unloading and sorting service; receiving fruits and repacking according to retailer requirements, before distributing to their final destination.
Watch this panoramic of some of the loading-unloading bays:
“With 55 million inhabitants, clearly Italy is a strategic market for La Dona Fruit,” explains Valentino. “Our main customer is one of the biggest players on the produce market in Milan. Our relationship is very important, and their logistics platform enables La Dona to offer a better service not only in Italy but also in Spain and France thanks to the proximity to Milan.”
Marine agrees Italy is a key export destination, and says the Milan-based customer manages the market very well for La Dona. “They have a lot of experience in dealing with retailers, which is great because this opens up a new sales channel for La Dona to increase our retail business in Italy,” Marine reveals.
For the last few weeks La Dona’s fruit has been arriving at the customer’s logistics facility for distribution across Italy. The warehouse benefits from several cold storage rooms, plus an entire repacking area where they can pack everything from avocados and mangoes to sweet potatoes, according to the supermarkets’ own requirements. Everything is done on demand!
Here’s part of the repacking area:
So far, La Dona’s limes have been sold in our own company branded boxes, although in the future our customer can repack into nets for retailers. The facility is also selling our pineapples in either our own boxes or on trays for the supermarkets.
During their trip, Marine and Valentino also toured the stalls at the Ortomercato Milano, the biggest wholesale market in Italy! Although traffic was quieter due to the local summer holidays, they saw lots of fruit and veggies, especially local produce, such as summer fruit, melons and watermelons. Importantly, they also saw La Dona’s pineapples and limes in all their glory!
Look at our beautiful limes in Milan:
“It’s always a pleasure to see in person those customers that you speak with daily by phone,” remarks Valentino. “Personal contact is so important in this business. We spoke with our customers about the quality of La Dona’s products, and they believe La Dona’s fruit has much potential for growth! We also discussed the added value that our new lime packhouse in Colombia will offer in the future.”
Here’s Valentino deep in discussion:
“Business has been constant at Ortomercato Milano, and our volume is increasingly slowly but surely,” adds Marine. “We’ve worked with our Milan customer for about a year now; starting with air pineapples. The volume has risen considerably; from just a few pallets to 20 pallets a week! Now, we’ve started shipping limes, and we started sending avocados a month ago. Just last week we agreed with our customer to start shipping some sea-freighted pineapples. Trials began on 14 July!”
Currently, Milan’s wholesale market is undergoing a complete refitting to modernise the facility. “It looks quite old at the moment, as you can see from the photos, but all the installations will be overhauled to become more functional,” notes Marine. “I expect it will look as smart as Rungis once completed!”
Check out Marine’s photos of Ortomercato Milano:
Before leaving Italy, Marine and Valentino headed east to Turin to visit a potential customer on the local wholesale market. This wholesaler already imports pineapples and limes, so La Dona’s basket of fruits could be a good fit. Watch this space!
Here’s a snapshot of Turin wholesale market:
And here are La Dona’s limes in Turin:
See how good our limes look:
Next, Marine and Valentino will travel to Barcelona to visit the infamous Mercabarna, a major wholesale market for fresh food in Spain and Europe. Check back soon to discover how their trip unfolds.
– The La Dona Family