Almonds market and covid-19: Alfrus takes East Europe to manage the crisis
2020 will be forever remembered for the Covid-19 pandemic, but for Alfrus it was also the year of recovery. At the beginning of the pandemic, indeed, our almond processing company had already overtaken the exports average in Italy, and thanks to our almond exports strategy business we managed the crisis successfully.
According to the last balance report of our company, in 2020 the budget relating to almond export sales exceeded in Italy with:
– 53% of export revenues
– 47% sales from Italy.
This data is relevant because mirrors our company vision: for us foreign markets are a reference point to sell our natural, peeled, and toasted almonds, semifinished products, and marzipan.
HOW TO MANAGE COMMERCIAL RISK
Our anti-crisis strategy aims at increasing the diversity of commercial risk, that is, in other words, reaching countries with different economic speeds.
“Germay, for instance, together with West and South European countries, has recorded no economic growth in almonds demand – underlines Domenico Sisto, CEO of Alfrus Srl – we believe there are other interesting foreign markets where we can succeed, such as Russa and Ukraine. These countries are increasingly growing in almonds demand, and this is why we decided to broaden our client portfolio moving towards East Europe”.
CALIFORNIAN ALMONDS SALES, 2021 FIRST QUARTER REPORT
Our strategy obviously takes into account almond markets trends, focusing on California almonds demand, which includes 90% of the raw material processed in our factories.
According to the report issued on March 2021 by the Almond Board of California, it seems that the crisis due to pandemics affected mainly final consumers, and that the overall almond corporate business, instead, has not suffered.
Furthermore, the report highlighted the East European growing demand for almonds, and that the countries from continental Europe are the second-largest almond consumer in the world, following the United States of America, which are always on the cutting age as almonds world’s leading consumer.
CALIFORNIAN ALMONDS SALES, 2021 FIRST QUARTER REPORT
Our strategy obviously takes into account almond markets trends, focusing on California almonds demand, which includes 90% of the raw material processed in our factories.
According to the report issued on March 2021 by the Almond Board of California, it seems that the crisis due to pandemics affected mainly final consumers, and that the overall almond corporate business, instead, has not suffered.
Furthermore, the report highlighted the East European growing demand for almonds, and that the countries from continental Europe are the second-largest almond consumer in the world, following the United States of America, which are always on the cutting age as almonds world’s leading consumer.
EAST EUROPE, AN INTERESTING GROWING MARKET
In light of all of this, it is important for us at Alfrus to bet on new commercial trades in East European countries. An economic background that is still relatively unknown by the food and confectionery industries, but an interesting chance for us, because it records a progressive:
– Growth in the average purchasing power of consumers,
– Attention to product quality and commercial relations.
In the past, the Eastern European market has always been ruled by price policy. But things have changed today: prices no longer determine the success of a product on the market, especially in those countries where today there is a significant GDP growth, compared with the flagging budgets in the rest of Europe.
Low prices are not a priority to enter the Eastern European market, where a growing culture of food quality and safety is making its way. And these are two aspects that have always distinguished our work ethics at Alfrus.
ALMOND EXPORTS FOR MARKET RECOVERY STRATEGY
Our strategy heads towards the market recovery, when we will be able to fully rely on the customers we have already gained and consolidated over time, and on a brand new network of very interesting relationships in East Europe.
Our business relationships with foreign buyers keep growing. We are expanding our trades in new countries and we hope that the incoming economic recovery will be a further chance to grow for our almond processing company.
We are ready to start again, from business relationships, pursuing food quality and safety, as we have always done so far.
29 March 2021
