The ready-to-eat vegetable product industry continues to boom among Spanish consumers, as reflected in the sales figures.
The Alicante-based cooperative Surinver, which has more than 45 years of experience in the production and marketing of fresh fruits and vegetables, is strongly committed to its ready-to-eat range, focusing on traditionally-prepared, 100% vegan and allergen-free dishes. Since it started working with such products, its retail sales have been growing steadily. The company closed 2022 with an increase of more than 26% in supermarket sales, and in the first quarter of 2023, its turnover has grown by more than 18% over the same period of the previous year, far exceeding its growth prospects, which had been estimated at 10%.
"More than 13 years ago, we identified the need to offer quality, ready-made vegetable dishes to an increasingly demanding consumer with less time available for cooking. To be able to supply healthy foods that retain all their nutritional properties while also providing a high quality vegetable option with a longer shelf life than fresh produce, we needed to invest in a ready-to-eat range," says Raquel Villaba, Surinver's Marketing Director. "Food waste in the home is also reduced thanks to the products' longer shelf life and, therefore, availability for consumption," she said.
In these current times of inflation, ready-to-eat natural products are becoming a reliable option for the consumer. "Certainly, processed and packaged products offer more stable prices than fresh produce. To this we must also add that ready-to-eat products are increasingly popular in Spanish households thanks to their longer storage time, which also reduces food wastage and translates into greater savings," says Raquel Villalba.
Besides the retail, this line of vegetable products is also intended as a solution for the Horeca channel. The cooperative's product range includes Baked Roasted Peppers, Escalivada, Quinoa Salads, Dressings and Grated Natural Tomato, as well as other recently launched products, such as its line of Creamy Pumpkin Desserts with Fruits. It is a perfect alternative for people with food allergies or simply for consumers looking for a healthy and sweet product.
"Pumpkin is one of our cooperative's flagship products and we wanted to transform it for the ready-to-eat segment by developing a whole range of desserts, including creamy pumpkin and orange dessert, creamy pumpkin, berry and orange dessert and creamy pumpkin, lemon and apple dessert. This new line was launched at the latest edition of Fruit Attraction, held in Madrid last October, where we won the Innovation Hub Awards 2022. It is currently available in some of the most important supermarkets and hypermarkets in our country. In other product lines, such as our Quinoa Salad range, pumpkin also plays a key role. It is, for example, the main vegetable ingredient of our Quinoa Salad with curry."
The Alicante-based cooperative is already preparing new launches that will be presented at the next edition of Fruit Attraction. Besides, the cooperative has recently developed a new packaging format that will help reduce the use of plastic by 20% without any loss in terms of quality, properties or shelf life in storage.
For more information:
Raquel Villalba
Surinver
T. +34 96 676 60 68 ext.245
M. +34 639 57 18 20
[email protected]
www.surinver.es