De Lier, The Netherlands
February 3, 2009
From 16 – 25 January, vegetable
breeding company Rijk Zwaan
presented its convenience product Salanova® at the Grüne Woche
trade fair in Berlin. The reputation and popularity of the
product continue to grow unabated. So much so, that supplies
cannot keep up with demand at present. That is why consumers at
the fair made an indirect appeal to German retailers to include
more Salanova® on the shelves.
Rijk Zwaan’s presence at the Grüne Woche meant a continuation of
its successful participation in last year’s event. At that time,
too, the breeding company presented its unique lettuce type that
falls apart into ready-to-use small leaves with just one cut.
Rijk Zwaan is consciously looking for more and more direct
contact with consumers. The company is convinced that the best
way to promote Salanova® is to let people experience its
convenience for themselves. So that is why the ‘one cut, ready’
principle was explained on the stand, there and then. Not only
that, visitors were also given a free corer to take home, making
it even easier to prepare Salanova®.
|
 |
Questions about availability
“During the Grüne Woche we experienced once again how quickly
the popularity of Salanova® is growing. Between 30 and 40% of
German consumers now know the product and they are all
enthusiastic about it, without exception,” Rijk Zwaan chain
manager Jörg Werner says. “The other side of that is, though,
that we have received a lot of questions about the limited
availability of the product. Consumers see Salanova® on the
shelves only occasionally and cannot be sure that they will be
able to buy it every day. But it is exactly the certain
knowledge that they can buy the same, reliable, quality product
every day that is so important for realising a preferential
position. Once supply and demand are more attuned to each other
I expect that there is still a tremendous lot of room for growth
in Salanova® sales.”
Educating with Salanova
During the Grüne Woche, Salanova® was also represented via an
initiative by Edeka. This retailer champions a healthier
lifestyle for German children by means of the “Aus Liebe zum
Nachwuchs” project. Children from 200 nursery schools in German
underprivileged areas are taught where vegetables come from in
an easy-going way. The aim of the project is to familiarise
children with the healthy characteristics of fresh vegetables at
an early stage in their lives and in a fun way. At the Grüne
Woche, Edeka was one of the official partners of the “Erlebnis
Bauernhof”, where pictures showed the various development phases
of a vegetable plant. Rijk Zwaan feels involved in this
initiative and supplies Salanova® seed for the project, free of
charge.
Fruit Logistica
Rijk Zwaan has its own stand again at the Fruit Logistica trade
fair this year. On stand D15 in hall 1.2 one of the subjects
that will be given a lot of attention is the Salanova®
convenience concept. |
|
