"Over the past few years, our company has experienced significant, double-digit growth (+70%), consolidated mostly as a result of additional buyers from the retail sector. At the moment, we sell our strawberries in twenty supermarket chains, including Italian and European ones, but we have established a more forward-looking and mutually convenient path with five of them. In fact, five Italian chains have decided to enhance the value of our produce by affixing their brand name to it, as a guarantee of quality and traceability for consumers. The strawberry packaging displayed on supermarket shelves ranges from 300, 500 to 1000 grams single-layer, as well as 500 g in bulk."
OP Zuccarella packaging line
This is what Luca Zuccarella sales manager of OP Zuccarella, a company located in the Italian province of Scanzano Jonico that produces, processes and markets strawberries for several months of the year, explains.
Linea Sapori & Idee Conad
"There are actually three parties benefiting from this commercial operation," resumes the manager. The grower, who is able to sell strawberries both in the case of a surplus and a production deficit, thus without resorting to inconvenient auctions; the supermarket, which instead can count on constant quantitative-qualitative supplies at fixed prices; and, finally, the consumer, who buys private label strawberries because they trust their supply chain."
OP Zuccarella Cooperative Society has business relationships with a
number of different brands. In Italy, for example, it sells mainly in Lombardy, Tuscany, Abruzzo, Basilicata, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Puglia, Marche, Sardinia, Trentino-Alto Adige and Valle d'Aosta. (In the picture, Candonga Top Quality® brand baskets from OP Zuccarella).
"Supermarkets are looking for good fruits with a long shelf-life and resistant to handling. They prefer to have relationships with those companies that are able to be on the shelf with a large commercial calendar. Supermarket chains are not interested in having a multitude of varieties concentrated in one period, but a few that are capable of covering a good part of the year."
Matera Premium Line
Zuccarella adds that, especially in the last season, there seems to be a lot of confusion in the markets between brands and varieties of strawberries. Sabrosa is the Planasa nursery cultivar grown exclusively in the Basilicata region and marketed, by authorized producers, under the Candonga Top Quality® brand. "Inspire," continues the manager, "on the other hand, is another strawberry variety from the El Pinar group that we market under the Matera Premium brand. Within this brand, however, we have also included other selections, which allow us to extend the harvest until the end of July."
For more information: 
OP Zuccarella Soc. Coop. Agr.
Via Parisi, 16 - Scanzano Jonico (MT)
+39 0835 418009
[email protected]
opzuccarella.it
opzuccarella-Facebook.com