“With pre-cut and packaged discipline greens, now we have discovered a market area of interest inside meals retailing”

Just over a year ago, a company moved into a brand new warehouse for fresh field vegetables in the Vorarlberg region. In the second year of Corona came the next step for Rheintaler Feldfrüchte Ltd. In the wake of the pandemic, the company, founded in 2017, ventured into the processing of home-grown produce.

It was also a very wet year for Austrian vegetable growers, co-managing director Sebastian Allgäuer said. “In terms of volume, we are about 20% below the previous year’s level for potatoes, but we have been spared major yield losses for the remaining products. Regarding red and yellow onions, for example, we are making the most of both quality and yield.”

Sebastian Allgäuer and Kilian Schatzmann founded the Rheintaler Früchte cooperative in 2017 / Image: Weissengruber & Partner

Packaged beetroots and onions
The basic assortment of the regional cooperative still amounts to potatoes, onions, celeriac and beet. “Since this year, we have been supplying the latter vegetables not only in raw form, but also pre-cut and vacuum-packed in 500-gram packages. This means we are already in a position to supply regional food retailers with fresh, appealing produce from our own cultivation for 12 months of the year,” Allgäuer describes. A regional partner takes care of the cutting and packaging of the field-fresh produce.

In addition to this, the onion business has also been expanded considerably, Allgäuer continues. “We have been supplying packaged onions in 1-kg containers – red as well as yellow – to food retailers since this year and have been selling 10 to 15 tons weekly. We were able to clear our winter onions at the beginning of June, followed by the clearing of summer onions in mid-September. Since we did not expect this high demand, unfortunately our stock is now running out quickly. We will be completely sold out in about two weeks. According to the demand, we will expand our winter onion crop by 30% for next marketing year and even double our summer onion crop.”

Onion harvest in June

Branched sales market
All in all, the company says it is very pleased with the response so far, “We have found a niche within the food retail market with our processed products. Corona has also shown us how important secure sales channels are. Accordingly, we intend to focus increasingly on food retailing in the coming years, but in parallel we will continue to supply regional social institutions – whether canteens, hospitals or retirement homes – as a second sales market,” says Allgäuer.

According to Allgäuer, further product innovations are already planned: “For example, we have so far supplied our celeriac exclusively in raw form, but we have already received the first inquiries for the peeled product. Cut celeriac would therefore be worth considering.”

For more information:
Rheintaler Feldfrüchte
Sebastian Allgäuer
Ketschelenstraße 66
6800 Feldkirch, Vorarlberg
+43 664 9186569
sebastian@allgaeuer.at  
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