The conference pears of the Netherlands and Belgium are in full swing now. This pear variety is not only supplied to the European market, but also the Chinese market. Leopard Fruit Trading, a daughter company of the Dutch company Jaguar, the Fresh Company, is importing Dutch Conference pears to the Chinese market. Their first shipment arrived at the Shanghai Huizhan wholesale market on Tuesday the 8th of October and the prospects are looking good.
First containers of Jaguar Conference pear in Shanghai
Sylvia, the manager of Leopard in Shanghai mentioned: "We planned to let the first container arrive on the 1st of October, but because during that time our National Day and Golden Week (national holiday) took place, our first arrival was a bit delayed. The shipping line had some issues due to the holiday and therefore we could open our container no earlier than this week. Despite this delay, we are very happy with the first shipments and the feedback we get."
Jaguar Conference pear at Huizhan wholesale market Shanghai
The demand for Conference pears in China is growing yearly. 
How much the export volumes will increase this year is not clear. According to Randy Dijksman from Jaguar, there are some small differences in the quality of the pears this year compared with other years. He mentioned: "So far we have exported less volume than we had expected prior to the season start. We have noticed that the skin quality of the fruits this season is different from the last couple of years - so we are reluctant to send huge volumes without feedback from clients. However, the shelf life of the pears and the taste seem to be excellent - so I have good faith that it will be a successful season in the end. From this first arrival on we will have continuous arrivals into Shanghai and we will start to distribute to as many channels as we can to gather the feedback."
Jaguar Conference pear at Huizhan wholesale market Shanghai
Leopard Fruit Trading is also selling in Shanghai, as well as Beijing, Shenyang and Linyi. After the first few days of sales, it is going quite well according to Sylvia: “The feedback we get from our clients is very positive, they think the quality is good and like the taste as well. Furthermore, the sales are a bit slow now, because the holiday just ended and some of our products are still on their way to other markets. Our pears and our brand Jaguar are quite well known in the Chinese market now and in recent years more people are asking for our Jaguar pears as we are one of the biggest suppliers of this variety. This year the local production is also quite different from last year. Last year the supply was very low, but this year there is a bumper harvest. This could influence the market for imported pears as well, so therefore we first supply our current markets and wait for their feedback then we can look at opportunities to supply other markets."
Randy Dijksman
Jaguar, the Fresh Company
Tel. +31 (0)180 750 542
Fax. +31 (0)180 750 510
randy.dijksman@jaguartfc.nl
www.jaguarthefreshcompany.com
Sylvia
Leopard Fruit Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
Tel. +86 21 3479 9266
info@leopardfruit.cn