The week long celebrations of the Chinese New Year started on January 28. In these celebrations, its customary for families to travel many miles to reunite with their loved ones and present them with special fruits as a symbol of health and success for the coming year.
Cherries, especially the Chilean cherries, are a perfect gift in these celebrations, as the Eastern culture associates their shape and color with prosperity, good luck and continuity. This year the national cherry industry faced a great challenge as its season started almost three weeks early, had a large volume of fruit, and the Chinese New Year also started earlier; so coordinating arrivals properly was essential. To achieve this, the domestic export sector made an agreement with shipping companies to accelerate deliveries.
Luis Chadwick, CEO of Agricola San Clemente, said that, as far as logistics were concerned, the industry had achieved a key milestone this campaign: "This season, the industry was able to manage the cherry volumes very well through fast ships. As a result, the Chinese customers knew when their fruit would arrive, what volume would arrive, and how long they had to move the volumes before the next boat arrived."
Cherries are very different from, for example, apples, which can be exported in a period of ten months. Cherries must be shipped and sold in a limited amount of time to ensure their quality and condition. Even though cherry and apple sales were quite similar in the past year, as cherry FOB sales amounted to USD 630 million and apple FOB sales totaled USD 640 million, the sector expects cherry sales will surpass apple sales in the next few years.
According to Chadwick, selling a total FOB USD 435 million from just five ships in five weeks to China this year was unprecedented and historical.
"Exporting companies gambled it all in this short period of time. This is why there was a great presence of Chilean representatives in China during January. They were receiving the fruit on arrival," said Sebastian Suazo, Deputy Commercial Manager at Agricola San Clemente.
Suazo also stated that having opted for direct maritime vessels and a shorter transit to Hong Kong and Shanghai, which helped the fruit arrive in better condition, had been excellent alternatives for the commercialization of the cherries.
In this race, there were two ships, the Santa Inez and Santa Clara, that arrived almost simultaneously in Asia with 600 and 800 containers of cherries each, equivalent to eighty and one hundred million dollars FOB sales, respectively. This fruit had been sold almost entirely by Tuesday last week.
The Golden Dragon: A key marketing strategy this season
"There are two important events for Agricola San Clemente in this campaign: The coordinated logistics to ensure the cherries were managed well when they arrived to China, and our new Golden Dragon packaging, which was widely accepted," the President of the company stated.
He also said that the company had been exporting cherries from the area of Maule and Angol for over a decade, and that they have had a steady increase in exports for the past 5 years, which has led them to make significant investments in terms of packing and fields. It is also important to note that the company mainly exports to Asia, particularly to China, where they have managed to consolidate a network of strategic customers in major cities on the east coast of China and its interior. This work has been supported through a partnership with a sales office in Shanghai, with Hortifrut, for eight years. "This allows us to have a closer relationship with customers and to know the market," said Chadwick.
Meanwhile, Sebastian Suazo said that the company had developed a new packaging, which they called the Golden Dragon, because Chinese consumers appreciated attractive packaging and because they had achieved good quality fruits that were in good condition this season. The Golden Dragon packages have 2 kilograms of cherries and are part of the company's Dragon brand with which the exporter sells its fruit in China. The company shipments are enhanced by a repackaging line that they installed in Shenzhen, which was sent from Chile to China at the end of 2015.
"The new Golden Dragon packaging differentiated our product and allowed us to carry out promotional activities with small stands in wholesale markets and retail shops, including tastings. All of which helped boost sales," Suazo stated.
Source: simfruit.cl
