The company located in Verona, Garden Frutta, leads the field in berry exports and imports. They recently began construction of a new 5000 m2 distribution platform with a state-of-the-art cooling system, to be up and running by January 2015. “We’re seeing 25% yearly growth and we need to have the appropriate infrastructure”, explains Matteo Mosca. “Demand for red fruits is on the up”, adds Matteo Mosca. Garden Frutta has the most complete range of red summer fruits available, 360 days year. 40% of their fruit is self-produced, the rest coming from all over Italy: Verona, Trento, Piemonte and Sicily. In the Italian season, raspberries are harvested from April to December, followed by blackberries, from May to September and then blueberries, from June to September. When the European campaign ends, they keep their supplies going with imports from October to May, with raspberries from Spain and Mexico, blackberries from Mexico and Uruguay, and cranberries from Argentina, Uruguay Chile and Peru. Their produce is marketed under the brands Garden Frutta, Amor and the customer’s own trademark. The Italian market takes up 80% of their fruit, for both retail channels (60%) and traditional markets (30 %). The remaining 20% is exported to Austria, Germany and France, and Eastern Europe in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia. “Eastern Europe is a growing market and a strategic target for our development plan”, says Mosca.