The Agrisicilia team
“In this delicate moment, marked by the haemorrhage of sales, we need to have courage and diversify the assortments to meet the new habits of the consumer and overcome the usual patterns that often, in negotiations, lead to underestimating some products”. It is a real awareness-raising appeal aimed at buyers, category management and stakeholders, launched via GDONews by Carmelo Cristaldi, sales manager of Agrisicilia, a company that has been bringing jams and jams to shelves throughout Italy for over thirty years. jams made with the best citrus fruits on the island.
“I am convinced – he explains – that in this period it can become a fundamental aspect in trying to also reverse the trends in the category on which the counter-figures weigh. We must not miss important opportunities, we must create young assortments that can be appreciated and have an impact. There are groups that are proving to be more attentive to new trends while others are more anchored to historical references of national companies and leading brands that perhaps do not perform well today. Greater courage is needed.”
In the first eight months of the year, large-scale retail trade grew, but jams suffered a contraction due to the rebound of Covid in the first half of 2021. Have you also experienced the same phenomenon?
“The jam market is certainly not going through a good moment given that the latest Nielsen data in our hands, updated to 31 August, indicate performances with negative trends both in volume (-2.5%) and in value (-6%) . A trend also due to the high counter-figures left behind by the pandemic and the greater quantity of meals consumed at home by Italian families. In my opinion, however, as mentioned, there is also a significant impact due to the most recent consumer trends. In this context Agrisicilia is a countertrend given that we perform with +15% in value and +6% in volume. We are a smaller company compared to industrial brands but our market share (1.8%) is characterized by high quality products and a continuous push for innovation”.
Which drivers are you receiving the most attention for?
“Healthy and specialty foods are certainly growing segments. As far as we are concerned, the issue of PGI and PDO territoriality is always fundamental. Our main focus has always concerned the valorization of the raw materials of a region like ours which offers typologies of typical fruit and citrus fruits which we select, transforming them in a premium key with traditional recipes with a high fruit content, thus giving the consumer unique sensorial sensations. Having a vast variety of raw materials available, we have always tried to segment the offer with the top of the range products from Sicily”.
