On 23rd April, Sascha Suler and Regina Kerz from BioTropic paid a visit to Meckenheim – the “apple paradise” on the Rhine near Bonn. Their destination was the agricultural facility of Hubert Bois, a Demeter farmer with extensive experience and BioTropic shareholder. In the sunshine and Spring temperatures, Bois’ apple trees are now in full bloom. The numerous blossoms promise a good apple harvest this year.
Supplier visit with customers
In mid-March, we travelled to the southern tip of Italy with customers. The regions of Apulia and Basilicata offer optimum growing conditions for a multitude of different fruit and vegetables. This meant that our customers got the chance to see directly who the producers are that we have confidently worked together with for years. Our Italian colleagues Ivana Giannico, Romana Slusarek and agricultural engineer Mauro Finotti accompanied us on the trip. And who are the producers? We introduce a few here:
Why an organic apple from overseas is preferable to a conventional apple
When spring really gets going in Europe, and everywhere plants are sprouting and blooming, the apple season here has long since ended. At this time of year, European apples are only available from cold storage. In other parts of the world, however – in Argentina and New Zealand, for example – juicy-fresh apples are being harvested. But what about sustainability? Don’t these apples require lots of resources? After all, first they need to be transported to Europe.
In 2008, Soumia Lomri and Emile Grac fulfilled their wish of setting up their own fruit plantation. The husband and wife obtained land in Morocco that suited their requirements, in the form of a 100-hectare plot between the port city of Essaouira and Marrakesh. On one third of the area, they planted mandarin trees, while on the remaining smaller areas, they planted oranges and figs. Neither of them are newcomers to agriculture, as both Grac and Lomri also used to market aromatic spices in their original homeland of France.
It is now the time for freshly harvested pears from Argentina. As the European pear season slowly comes to an end, we look beyond the horizon to cater for the demand. These delicious pears come from the fruit specialist Ernesto Bartusch’s La Deliciosa farm. It is located in the middle of the country, in the province of Rio Negro. This high-yielding oasis in the Patagonian Steppe is world-famous for its delicious apples and pears.
