Aiming at being closer to the consumer, JD.com has started selling fruit with San Miguel Brand at online retail stores and has deepened the commercial program.
JD.com is one of the largest online retailers in China. The commercial bond between San Miguel and JD began three years ago and has been growing in depth, volume and product diversity since then.
"We started working together with oranges and grapefruits from South Africa to supply the online retail channel and their offline stores called 7fresh. During 2020, we added mandarins from South Africa and lemons from Argentina, allowing us to establish as a multi-origin supplier," tells María del Pilar Arévalo, Commercial Manager for Asia at San Miguel. Pilar also mentioned that in the next few months shipments of Peruvian table grapes will be arriving before Chinese New Year’s celebrations.
This year San Miguel branding and packaging was officially launched at the Chinese e-commerce platform. These marketing activities were originally designed for oranges from South Africa and have also included video content focused on showing the natural origin and quality of the product.
When the first shipments of Argentinian lemon arrived last August, after 20 years of negotiations between Argentina & China to open this destiny, this yellow fruit joined the branding initiatives as well.
A partnership between both firms means a new step into expanding the business of San Miguel in one the biggest markets of the world. "By implementing these kinds of activities, we believe that we can offer more value to the Chinese consumer, who highly appreciate imported products, quality and branding," points out María del Pilar.
Due to the seasonality of production in each Hemisphere, San Miguel’s products cover a window when there is no local fruit. The fresh lemon offer, for instance, is especially relevant in China, a country where the tea consumption increases every year and where both lemon juice and slices of fresh lemon are key ingredients to upgrading this drink.
“JD Fresh has been making an effort to build up the supply chain system as our competitive advantage, with operating warehouses and delivery systems. From the moment we started importing directly, San Miguel has been effectively supporting us on providing high quality product to our online and offline consumers. We are aiming to broaden the San Miguel product line on our platform and promote multi-origin branding,” explains Una Wang, Purchasing Manager from JD.com.
"It is very important for us to keep growing in this country, where citrus consumption is rising. Having JD as a strategic partner allows us to reach Chinese territory in an effective way with high quality products’, concludes Arévalo.
For more information:
San Miguel Global
Tel: +5411 4721 - 8300
www.sanmiguelglobal.com