According to managing Director Mark O’Sullivan, this is an extremely important move for BanaBay, as the company perceive huge market potential for the brand.
Hao Wang, David Guo and Magan Dunmore from BanaBay.
“A dedicated BanaBay office in Shanghai, enables us to provide our customers with a direct contact, strategically based at the port, with an Operations Manager who understands the local marketplace and can respond immediately and effectively to all requirements."
The company now has 5 significant customers in China and is shipping 60 containers of bananas per week into 6 ports across China, aiming for a total of 150 containers of bananas worldwide by the end of the year. The target in China is the high-end market.
At the beginning of the year they had nothing going to China, Banabay are also looking at extending their product range to meet rising demand.
The company now sources products from Mexico, Costa Rica, Philippines and Dominican Republic as well as Ecuador.
Banabay are not stopping at China, when they are established there they will be looking at more countries such as Japan, Korea and Singapore. At the moment China is the fastest growing market in the world, there is competition but the market is huge. They are looking into the possibility of importing pineapples into China too, but this will depend on demand.