LIBRO-CONGRESO-CITRUS

PC03
The importance of citrus for the juice and beverage industry
Ademerval Garcia
Grove 2 Glass Trading GmbH, a ‘The Coca-Cola Company’ subsidiary. Zürich, Switzerland
The Juice Industry - as any other industry – needs to manage the short-term while planning, executing and
managing the long-term needs. Over-emphasis on the short-term leaves us exposed on those longer-term
challenges that are quite specific to our Industry – nature does not operate on a quarterly basis - and many of
the decisions that we are required to take to ensure the future prosperity of our business need a multi-year
and multi-decade perspective and financial commitment. So while the short-term outlook for sales is both
challenging and volatile, we need, as companies and as an Industry, to continue to plan for the future.
Our vision of operating in Juices is the result of a three pronged strategy applied consistently wherever we
operate:
• Sustainable sourcing: We have set out to partner with growers, processors and juice suppliers to ensure
long term supply of juice at competitive prices, while minimizing our environmental footprint, benefiting
the communities where we operate and ensuring we receive juice that consistently meets our stringent
quality standards.
• Implementing efficient operating practices: Marketing fruit juice demands a completely different
approach when compared to other beverages: convert juice ingredients into packaged juice & deliver to
customers through a “Fit for Purpose” juice operating model supported by the right processes, advanced
analytics and sensory science.
• Delivering compelling consumer propositions led by a Global “Master Brand”: We have united multiple
local brand names under a single mainstream global umbrella brand that shares common Visual Identity
System, brand architecture and integrated marketing communication and spans multiple juice product
segments.
• A scientific approach to preserve and grow the business: It’s our belief that the historical model of
segmentation of the Industry in three isolated production chains is not valid anymore. Growing,
Processing and Marketing are part of the same effort to secure the viability of the Industry in the long
term. And all of those legs of the juice business demand continuous scientific support: to Grow (irrigation,
fertilization, plant protection, better varieties); to Process (high yields, less waste, energy conservation,
less water usage, quality) and to Market (quality, sensory, obesity, water and carbon footprints). And
Social Responsibility covering every single step from the Grove to Glass.
• At the end, the business is supported by four legs instead of three: Grow, Process, Market and Science.
As the rest, scientists are not expected to remain isolated on their fields of expertise. An integrated
approach inside the various branches of Science is now necessary. Economics are necessary in the posgreening
era of planting; Sensory is necessary in processing; Environmental is necessary in the whole
production chain. New scientific fields are a challenge to which the scientific community has to respond
quickly.
• A dedicated juice procurement organization: If we are to succeed in building scale and driving growth
we have to safeguard the essential fuel of our industry – a continuous supply of the highest quality
juice at competitive costs. To ensure this, we set up a dedicated juice procurement arm based out of
Zurich –G2G Trading Services GmbH–, with fruit and procurement experts embedded in the key growing
regions around the world. Through this team we are building long term relationships with growers and
processors.
• Developing new production areas: In some cases we are committed to significant investments in new
fruit growing projects, via long term supply agreements thus safeguarding our supply and enabling future
growth. We have reinvented our overall approach to juice from the Grove, where our fruit is grown, to
the Glass where it is consumed. Our Grove to Glass philosophy is now embedded in everything we do in
juice and provides us with both a strong business philosophy and a roadmap for our future growth. And
again, Science is most needed to adapt varieties to other environments, to produce more convenient
varieties, to increase yields.
Our industry faces many challenges:
XII INTERNATIONAL CITRUS CONGRESS 2012 - 5