China is currently entering a period where a lot of its fruits are domestically produced and this applies a certain pressure on the imported fruits. As Chinese fruits are coming on the market, fewer imported fruits are needed, but are still imported to satisfy the market demand.
As April Huang, Director of the Global Import Department from Hema Fresh said: “At Hema Fresh we always try to provide our customers with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, so they can have multiple options when buying fruits. For now a lot of different domestic fruits are in season, so the amount of domestic produce is a bit higher. However, we still import fruits in order to satisfy different customers’ needs. For example, we are selling cherries from Shandong and Dalian, which are in season now. Though, this year we also tried to import some cherries from Uzbekistan. We imported small amounts, because it was the first year we were allowed to import Uzbeki cherries and we wanted to try it on the Chinese market. For now it goes quite well. At the end of June we will start importing cherries from Canada.”
Different seasonal products displayed, blueberries and grapes
Another product that is for the first time on the market in China is the Sicilian blood orange. “This year we also imported the blood oranges from Italy for the first time. On the outside it might look like a normal orange, but on the inside it has a red flesh color and the taste is different from other oranges from, for example, Spain or Egypt. When the first shipments arrived, we also had a special promotional activity that week, to shed some extra light on the first arrival of Italian blood oranges on the Chinese market. And to let our customers taste their unique flavor. Now the oranges are taken up in our normal product range of oranges and they are presented between the American, Spanish and Australian oranges. The Italian blood oranges also are a bit cheaper than our Spanish oranges, so that encourages the sales as well.”
Hema Fresh's Orange display, to the right the Italian blood oranges
Other seasonal fruits that are now mainly presented in Hema Fresh, are all kind of berries, like blueberries, cranberries, raspberries and strawberries, “At Hema Fresh we focus a lot on the quality and freshness of the products. For example, when the lychees were in season in China, we had to manage the temperature of these products very well, because they are very sensitive for temperature changes. Though, because the lychee season this year was short and just had a limited amount of production output, the lychees were mostly sold within one day. Which is good, since they will be fresh that way as well. At Hema Fresh we put a lot of emphasis on the products’ quality and freshness, since those are most important to our clients. ” April Huang concludes.
Several imported fruits like longan and avocado
April Huang - Director in Global Import Department
Hema Fresh
Email: jinyi.hl@alibaba-inc.com