GFI and EOS
“Enjoy me” Wholesale markets present apples from South Tyrol to quality-conscious customers

The marketing partnership established last year between the association of German wholesale markets, GFI, and Bozen/Bolzano Chamber of Commerce’s export organization for South Tyrol, EOS, will be taken further in 2009.

GFI will be organizing a total of 11 promotions for EOS in the cities of Munich, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Berlin between 16 April and 6 May. Customers can sample conventional varieties like Braeburn, Golden and Jonagold and try the organic Pinova apple.

This year’s promotions will start on Munich’s famous Viktualienmarkt. The next promotions will focus on shops/covered markets: in Stuttgart Market Hall, in front of Düsseldorf’s Carschhaus store and in the Marheineke Market Hall, Berlin. 
Specialist retailers attract quality-conscious customers who want to know where the produce comes from, and who particularly value quality and taste. These customers are brand buyers and especially susceptible to any appeal to the emotions. And so communication has again been based on the phrase “vernasch mich” (loosely translatable as ‘enjoy me), featuring posters and a competition with an attractive prize (a week’s holiday on a South Tyrolean fruit-growing estate) and targeting this type of shopper.

GFI organizes sales channels events at street markets, greengrocers and covered markets for partners and their brands. The association takes central responsibility for overall planning and coordination of the promotions. The local GFI wholesale markets plan the details of the campaign in their city and how to involve the marketing partner in the event. They use their knowledge of local trade and media structures to ensure their marketing partners need have no fear that customer communication is wasted on the wrong target groups.

The promotions are the start of what will be a new record year for such events. More promotions are planned for apples, kiwis, melons and bananas.

About EOS - Bozen/Bolzano Chamber of Commerce’s export organization for South Tyrol In South Tyrol 8,000 family enterprises grow top quality apples on smallish plots of land.  The fruit growers have been dedicated to integrated cultivation for many years and a third of the organic apples grown in Europe now come from South Tyrol. Eleven varieties of apple from South Tyrol have been permitted to use the PGI label (protected geographical indication). This label guarantees produce grown in South Tyrol in accordance with regulations applicable to all the region’s apple growers; a continuous checking system from grower to sales display monitors compliance.

About GFI German Wholesale Markets. GFI German Wholesale Markets was founded in 2000 and represents the interests of Germany’s 17 major wholesale markets. GFI is the central point of contact for national and international growers seeking to market their produce through quality, independent food retail channels. GFI offers its members a forum for the structured exchange of information and insights on ways to market wholesale markets; it also offers public platforms such as a joint stand at the Fruit Logistica and its own website, www.grossmaerkte.org

About German Wholesale Markets. These fresh produce centres guarantee a wide variety of top quality fresh produce, especially fruit and vegetables. At these central, urban trading platforms around 2,600 small and medium sized wholesalers, importers and growers supply fresh produce from the region and all over the world to more than 53,000 customers in the specialist, independent food retail business such as greengrocer shops and street markets and to large-scale caterers and top restaurant chefs. Annual turnover of goods is around 7.4 million tonnes with a total value of roughly 9.8 billion euros. Germany’s wholesale markets thus ensure the availability of good, nutritious food for around 100 million consumers in Germany and neighbouring European countries.

Info-Service:
Report in Eurofruit Magazine May 2009
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