ANECOOP: new branch in Moscow

Spain

Tuesday 09 December 2008

The Russian agency opened last September.

The first marketing company for fruit and vegetables in Spain, opened a new branch in Russia, the biggest fruit importer in the world.

During the 2006/07 campaign, Anecoop sold over 4.500 tons of products to Russia, fruit, vegetables and wine. Today the secondary cooperative forecasts to treble its sales up to 15.000 tons.

This initiative is an answer to a real increasing activity of Anecoop in Russia, where the secondary cooperative exports the products of its 95 associates since 30 years. Over 80% of fruit and vegetables consumed in Russia is imported. Russia is one of the countries that mostly import this range of product in the world. At present, Russian companies are looking for suppliers of big quantities and range of products.

Mr Juan Safont, Chairman of Anecoop, emphasized the importance of this new office at the heart of the Russian market: “Spain produces a great part of the fruit and vegetables needed by the Russian market and Anecoop, leader in this sector, had to open a branch in order to establish personalized contacts with its customers and open new markets.”

For Mr Vitaly Valov, the new office Director, the establishment of big retail chains is also to be considered in support of the opening of this office.”80% of our customers are big retail chains, and we had to offer the same service in Russia as we offer to other European countries.” As far as Anecoop is concerned, Russia is the third market in terms of quantities regarding wine segment, after Sweden and Spain.” Concerning the registered appellation of origin of wine segment, we hold at present 13% of the Russian market” specifies Mr Vitaly Valov.

Spain is considered as “the orchard of Europe”. In Russia, its products have a very good reputation thanks to their quality. Citrus fruit, especially oranges, tangerines, and lemons are the most appreciated products from Anecoop, followed by tomatoes, lettuces, persimmons, strawberries and wine.

The Anecoop Goup has a structure of 16 companies all over Europe. Domestically, the head office is located in Valence (Spain), with 3 branches in Almeria, Murcia and Sevilla. The commercial network out of border includes the following companies:

Anecoop France and international Fruits service (IFS), in France

Fesa U.K in the United Kingdom

4 Fruits Company in Holland

Anecoop Polska in Poland

Anecoop Praha in Czech Republic.

The Russian market is one of the most promising market regards to the citrus fruit sector, thanks to its demography and purchasing power. However, we must recognize it’s a specific market, with its own structures and a difficult road access. So you’d better ship large quantities of products.

At present, the Russian market is mostly supplied by Morocco, Egypt, Greece and Turkey. These two latter because of their geographical proximity and the possibility to produce at lower cost than Spanish companies, thanks to low cost workers. To reach the Russian market, it’s important to build a logistic network to give a certain status to Spanish production of citrus fruit in view of new customers.