At the moment, it still takes a little imagination to picture the first tractors dumping their trailers, hopefully full to bursting with cider fruit, in Sulgen from autumn onwards. That’s where the construction companies are currently busy building our new fruit processing centre. Holderhof is taking a long-term lease on the building built by dairy merchant Walter Arnold, and is installing its own modern facilities there, which will enable efficient production. In the future, we will process up to 15,000 tonnes of Swiss cider apples into direct juice there every year. But not only that: as the name suggests, berries, fruits or even vegetables are also to be processed there in the medium term. To applesauce, fruit purees or semi-finished products for the food industry, for example.
Interesting opportunity for cider fruit suppliers
But first we start with the must. Here we rely entirely on direct juice instead of the concentrate usually produced by Swiss cideries. “When I look around in the neighbouring countries, the trend is clearly going in this direction,” explains Holderhof managing director Christof Schenk. In Switzerland he senses an increasing interest in such products in the retail trade. As a fresh player in the cider industry, Holderhof is still looking for cider fruit producers who grow their apples for us and deliver them to Sulgen in autumn. Long-term purchase contracts and fair prices await them. Holderhof wants to contribute to the professionalisation of cider fruit production in Switzerland.