“We are proud to announce that Delta Agrar became the official partner for the Balkan Region and for Russia for new and exciting brand apple varieties: Rubens, Isaaq and Red moon, which will be in production next spring. Furthermore, our company agreed to have Sweet Tango in trial production.” said Miloš Stoiljković from Delta Agrar.
Stoiljković went on to expound on their current exclusive production and distribution of various varieties to the Balkan Region:
“At this moment our company is the exclusive producer and distributor for the Balkan region and nonexclusive distributor for the Russian market for Modi, Kiku and Evelina apples.”
“Besides more hectares for new apple varieties, Delta Agrar constantly increases storage capacities. Of course we will continue with market development in the Balkan region for branded varieties and on the Russian market as well. This will be very challenging.”
Brand projects and apple varieties
After five years of the successful production of commercial apple varieties such as Golden and Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Gala and Breaburn, Delta Agrar began entering brand apples projects. Stoijković explains:
“Our first partnership was in 2012, with Italian C.I.V., a company from Ferrara for the production and distribution of Modi apples, later followed by company KIKU S.R.L./GMBH from Girlan, Italy, for KIKU apples, and lastly with Star Fruits from France, for the testing of the production of Pink Lady apples in 2014. For Pink lady, we are now in finishing a 3-year testing period in the Balkan Region,”
Challenges
Stoiljković continues: “For club variety apples, we faced several big challenges, starting with learning production management of these special varieties, then learning about special storage management. But the main challenge was, and still is, to make an effort to develop the market for new varieties and to implement different marketing strategies in order to successfully introduce new varieties to consumers.”
He states that they had a hard time entering the market as many consumers didn’t see the benefits of the new varieties. However, over time and with proper health based marketing he says they taught shoppers the differences.
Staying competitive on the European market
Stoiljković goes on to discuss how his company fights competition in Europe:
“Traditionally, the main export market for Serbian apples is the Russian one, although our company has customers in the EU as well. With the production of high-quality and safe apples, by achieving high and stable yields, by being able to fulfil a wide range of customer-demand, and by having implemented all necessary quality standards, every company can be competitive.”
