Canova has increased its invoicing by almost 20% due to the boom in healthy trends in the middle of the pandemic.
COVID-19 arrived in Italy very unexpectedly, affecting all sectors, including agrifood. However, not all the consequences have been negative. “Consumers have reconsidered what they eat and their health, consolidating this trend and boosting fresh, ecological fruit and vegetable sales,” according to Carlos Soto, manager of Canova in Spain.
The group, a member of Apofruit, with head offices in Italy, has increased its invoicing by almost 20% and it has seen 15% rise in volume. “This could be partially due to the mass stockpiling at the start of the pandemic, but we realised that the growth has also occurred in references where there was no stock-out.” Amongst the most popular products were fruit associated with high vitamin C content: kiwis, oranges and lemons, with a 25-30% increase compared to the same period of the last campaign. This increase has meant that some of these have finished the campaign ahead of schedule. “People are calling us from all over Europe for kiwis, but we have had to regulate the sales flow to be able to supply our regular clients. A similar case has happened with oranges.”
In Italy, a part of society has become more aware to different aspects related to the environment and the fact of being confined has encouraged purchases of fresh produce for the home, both in person (mainly in local shops, at the expense of the hypermarkets, where the ‘Islas Alma Verde’ are located), and online. The evolution of FruttaWeb, a subsidiary of Canova for online sales using the Alma Verde Bio brand, which has increased its figures “five-fold” is highly significant.
The Spanish Project
In Spain, Canova is in the middle of developing a new project: a distribution warehouse to supply the national market that will be finished this year. This warehouse will be used to give a multi-reference service (between 20-30 per pallet) with products from Spain and Italy for bio clients who request this type of service.
