"New things are coming regarding peppers, tomatoes, and yellow-fleshed watermelons"

A laboratory of innovation, a brand recognised by consumers - "but Valfrutta Fresco is, above all, a company with a clear objective in mind, i.e., to grow while making the most of our members' products. We are growing both in value and volume, in line with our budget and aim to close at €30 million," report General Manager Enrico Bucchi and Marketing Manager Claudia Iannarella.

The trump card? "Effective strategic choices and the ability to innovate so as to anticipate the expectations of an increasingly demanding and challenging market. This translates into many projects, both large and small, often studied together with our partners in the big retail trade sector and translated into something concrete by our social base, which remains our point of reference: everything we do, every project we imagine must have the clear objective of enhancing their work and guaranteeing them the best possible remuneration. Before anything else, Valfrutta Fresco is the expression of a short, controlled, high-quality supply chain."

"There are three key words for the future - innovation (both in terms of product and communication), value to our supply chain, and foreign market. To these correspond three iconic projects, certainly not the only ones we will be involved in, but representative of the Valfrutta Fresco style. The protagonists? Peppers, tomatoes, yellow-fleshed watermelons, and the specialities of our supply chain."

"In 2026, we will double the area dedicated to Italian Cornelio sweet peppers. Demand is increasing, and customers are requesting constant supplies 12 months a year. We continue to invest in this product, focusing on the best farmers for protected production (in glasshouses or tunnels) in different regions of Italy. The idea is to make it a club project, with an increasingly strong involvement of producers."

And still on the subject of Cornelio, Bucchi points out that "innovation is also moving forward, with the search for genotypes with even greater digestibility, with results that are already encouraging. It is a team effort between Valfrutta Fresco, university researchers, and Enza Zaden. Agri2000net, on the other hand, is collaborating with us on a shelf life study, which will reduce waste and make the supply chain more efficient in terms of production planning and harvest estimates."

"But 2026 will also be a year of novelties, in line with our nature as an innovation laboratory," emphasises Claudia Iannarella. "I am thinking, first of all, of the project for a premium tomato of the highest quality and positioning. It will be a type somewhere between a round tomato and a marmande. It will be totally new in terms of type and flavour."

Excellent results with the Valfrutta Limited Edition line
A bet on premium products, in the sign of Valfrutta Fresco's ability to offer consumers the best products selected for the suitability of the production areas, seasonality and organoleptic qualities: "In the summer period, we recorded very good results with the Valfrutta Limited Edition line: we took up a challenge thrown down by a customer and designed a range dedicated to those varieties that are particularly recognisable aesthetically and in terms of flavour, but of which there are not large quantities available. This year, for example, it was the case with certain plum varieties produced by our cooperative. This is another way of segmenting the offer and presenting ourselves to customers with innovative approaches, aimed at valorising the work of our producer members."

And then there are plans to expand beyond the border, because "Valfrutta is a historic brand in Italy which represents Italian style, tradition and the supply chain to consumers, but which also has important margins for development abroad. Here too, Cornelio will be a trump card, as we aim to make it more and more known, starting in Northern Europe, where we have good reason to think that it will appeal to consumer tastes. But we are also convinced that more innovative types of fruit, such as the yellow-fleshed watermelon, can carve out an important space for themselves in these markets. It is precisely this new watermelon that has attracted the attention of buyers over the past two years: "It is not just a question of colour," explains Iannarella, "but above all of organoleptic quality, which makes this watermelon stand out from the others thanks to its high sugar concentration always in balance with the juicy part of the pulp."

"All our projects, those mentioned or the many others we carry out every day, are possible thanks to our being part of a group, which is the expression of a supply chain with Agrintesa as the reference cooperative, thousands of producer members, and a qualified technical organisation that supports them. We also have close relations with Conserve Italia for fruit pulps for children, but not only that."

For more information
Valfrutta Fresco
Via G. Galilei 5,
48018 Faenza (RA) - Italy
+39 0546 648601
[email protected]
www.valfruttafresco.it