SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, March 21. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Canary Islands Society for Economic Development (Proexca) has intensified its efforts to diversify fruit and vegetable exports from the Islands to the United Kingdom; initiative that began to be launched during the third quarter of 2021, culminating at the end of the year with a shipment of organic papayas and bananas to the British multinational Marks & Spencer.
“To the traditional shipments that have marked the commercial relationship with the United Kingdom, focused on tomatoes and cucumbers, Proexca has taken another step to promote the incorporation of other products from the Islands such as papaya, pitaya and blueberries,” said Dácil Domínguez, director manager of the regional trading company.
Through Verónica Decouré as delegate of the entity in the United Kingdom, Proexca has been working during the last months through different actions in the promotion of fruit and vegetable trade with the Anglo-Saxon territory.
Within this framework of action, an analysis of the British market has been carried out, of the positioning of the Canarias brand for fruit and vegetable products, considering the relaunch of exports in this destination, and also focused on the opportunities that this country offers to producers canaries.
Likewise, it has maintained contacts with the producer associations of the Islands, in order to promote trade with the United Kingdom and broaden the field of action towards new business possibilities through existing market niches, especially with regard to organic products are concerned.
On the other hand, Proexca has made progress in locating importers in the United Kingdom, while at the same time facilitating contacts with supermarket chains that sell these products.
In line with the diversification of products, Proexca has carried out a feasibility study on the export of tropical fruits. In this way, it is committed to the Canary Islands being competitive with the countries that traditionally supply the United Kingdom, but offering other advantages such as the reduction of the carbon footprint through the transport of fruit by sea.
As a result of all the actions, last February Proexca facilitated the first commercial incursion in this field, materialized by the company Canary Fresh, which it has been able to guide in the process of managing all the customs aspects that have intensified after the Brexit, and that from now on it will allow papaya from the Canary Islands to arrive at Waitrose supermarkets.
The first export for the company from Tenerife that has sent a container of 5,000 kilograms of BIO papaya, which is the denomination that it acquires at destination.
In this case, the conditions of quality and flavor offered by the product sent from the Islands, which remains on the tree until it reaches half of its maturation, makes Canarian papayas in strong competition with respect to those from other countries.
