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Over recent years the food industry has embraced the trend towards commodities considered to be traditional. Faced with an increasing demand from customers wishing to eat products that are overly processed in a factory, suppliers are opting for including traditional ingredients and handmade methods to their products. This has been most noticeable in the drinks industry, where the market has moved towards craft beers, traditional juices and hand-crafted teas.
Customers seek more and more traditional products
Consumers consider those products seen to be hand crafted as providing better flavour and being more healthy. Whether this is true or not, this is the image that most people have about anything that has not been mass produced in a factory. Furthermore, importantly, most are willing to pay a little bit more for these sorts of products. “Hand-crafted” is becoming more and more esteemed precisely at the same time as advances in technology means that there has been an increase in automized processes.
Consumers believe that hand-crafted types of products are more authentic, exclusive and natural than those that come from a factory production line and seek, wherever possible, a glimmer of artisan intervention in their manufacture.
The rise of hand-crafted products in the food industry
The food industry has picked up on this trend and many of the largest players in the market have launched ranges of “hand-crafted” or “natural” goods. These new ranges have food made from ingredients or raw materials that are considered traditional, or have been handmade, having substituted large machines for humans to add an exclusive touch to their products.
Other companies have opted to join forces with smaller companies either through mergers or agreements in order to have their own range of hand-crafted foods on the market.
The authenticity that is attributed to hand-crafted products is the key to their success, and enables these products to stand out when customers are faced with shelves full of options at the supermarket.
What areas of production at Lazaya are still hand-crafted?
We believe that the most important part of our preserved fruit production line continues to be traditional, bearing in mind that we have our own orchards and fruit farms where all of the fruit we use in our goods is sourced. Only occasionally when our own produce does not cover demand, do we turn to trusted local producers to provide fruit to meet commitments with our worldwide customer base.
Our fruit continues to be picked by hand, as it has been done for the past 80 years, which is a testament to how essentially traditional Lazaya is when it comes to candied fruit, tinned fruit and jams.
Furthermore, we respect the seasons and harvest each type of fruit in accordance with the time of year.
Maintaining a traditional spirit alongside technological advances
In this day and age, it would be impossible to have a candied fruit company that did not count on modern techniques to make work easier and allow the preserves to be produced at a pace that is set by the market. Technology has revolutionized all areas of life, including the food sector where the use of technology is essential. At Lazaya we are proud of the fact that we have the perfect balance between traditional techniques and up-to-date technology, thus ensuring high quality produce at the right levels of stock.
One of the nicest and most traditional phases of production is natural pollination which happens once the fruit trees are in bloom, the first of which being the cherry trees. Natural pollination takes place with honey bees in a controlled way. Hives are transported and placed in different areas of the farm so that bees can move the pollen from the stamen to the pistil of the flowers. This way of following traditional cultivation methods also allows us to offer preserved fruit with excellent natural properties.
Alongside these manual and traditional steps in the manufacture of our preserved fruits are those which are fully industrialized, such as pitting, selecting and confiture, which have been improved over the years.
Lazaya: three generations of preserved fruits
Una de las características que suele definir a los productos artesanales, es que la mayoría de las veces son resultado de varias generaciones. Aunque Lazaya trabaja día a día por la innovación desde su departamento de I+D, sigue guardando la esencia de esa empresa familiar que nació allá por 1940 (aquí puedes conocer la historia) y que se ha mantenido de generación en generación hasta nuestros días. Es necesario incluir avances en tecnología para poder adaptarte a los nuevos tiempos y para poder abastecer las necesidades de tus clientes, en nuestro caso procedentes de los 5 continentes. Pero a pesar de ello, no hemos perdido un ápice de la ilusión y el compromiso con cada uno de los procesos de la elaboración de nuestras frutas en conserva, como ya hicieron nuestros familiares cuando fundaron la empresa en el siglo pasado.
One of the characteristics often used to ascribe tradition to a product is its longevity over the generations. Despite the fact that Lazaya works hard to innovate through research and development, we are still a family business at heart, one that began in 1940 (read our story here) and have kept this spirit alive over the generations until this day. Technological advances are necessary in order to adapt to the times and be able to meet our clients’ requirements, those who for Lazaya hail from all five continents. Throughout all this growth, our passion and promise has remained true, ensuring that at each step along the way to processing fruit, we continue to follow guidelines set by our predecessors when the company was established last century.
