In the first week of January, Herbert Widmann GmbH moved into its new premises in Taufkirchen and is now in the immediate vicinity of the Feldbrach company and the transport companies Schmidt and MTG.

“Our own logistics competence center for fruit and vegetables has been formed there,” explains managing director Hans Widmann. «The transfer was completed in one weekend. Thanks to this, we have increased our total surface area by 30%, with the consequent gain in comfort, especially for our employees. The move, without a doubt, was something necessary.

In addition, Widmann has spoken with us about the upcoming minikiwi and blueberry season.

50% more minikiwis from Chile

Herbert Widmann is able to market mini kiwis between calendar weeks 6 and 12. «We expect a 50% increase in the volume of the harvest. After the Chilean season, we could in principle also offer mini kiwis from New Zealand, but we do not yet have the appropriate logistics for this,” says Widmann. «The mini kiwis from Chile all arrive by air. Even though air freight and other logistics costs are higher, mini kiwifruit prices can remain stable.

The fruit is sold exclusively to retailers in Germany and Austria and is sold in 12 x 125 gram trays. «The weather has been favorable for the mini kiwis and has allowed the harvest to start a week earlier, while the blueberry season ended much earlier. Shipments of Chilean blueberries are going to end this week.

The demand for red fruits has doubled

«In autumn, Peruvian blueberries led the market. Last year we imported more than 6.000 tons of blueberries from Peru. The proportion of imports since January has been 40% for Peru and 60% for Chile. The Peruvian season will probably last a little longer.

Widmann was positively surprised by the high sales that red fruits are registering, and that have not yet stopped. "It is surprising that we are currently selling twice as many berries as in weeks 51 and 52." Towards the end of the year, demand for berries was a little more moderate, and then in January it skyrocketed again. "It is suspected that this may be related to increased health awareness."

Widmann also offers organic blueberries from Peru and Chile all year round. «At the end of the year, organic products suffered a little from the effects of the various crises. However, both product categories recovered from this in January and recorded a parallel increase,” says Widmann.

Regionality as added value

The issue of regionality also remains important when marketing blueberries, he says. «If you take the word 'regional' literally, you see that for Bavarian producers, for example, regionality also represents real added value. "On the other hand, in Lower Saxony, where 80% of local blueberries are grown, it is perceived that there are more blueberry producers than consumers."

"There is no doubt that we must protect our domestic producers in the north and encourage domestic marketing if we do not want German blueberry production to be lost in the future," says Widmann.