"In recent years, the competition for traditional fruit products has become increasingly fierce, and profit margins have been shrinking year by year. On the other hand, as China's labor costs and procurement costs continue to rise, the price advantage of domestic fruit in the international market has declined. Therefore, product diversification and the development of innovative products are important solutions."
Guangdong Holyfresh Fruit Co., Ltd. focuses on the export of domestic grapes and citrus and has several self-operated orchards. Mr. Liao, the general manager of the company, believes that the current market consumption is insufficient and competition is fierce, and developing new products may be one of the solutions.
"Two years ago, even with the outbreak of Covid, the market profits of our original export categories were still considerable. Then, the competition became more intense, and the problems of product homogeneity and low-price competition became more and more prominent. If we only pursue profits or only focus on brands, it is difficult to survive. In my opinion, if we can achieve product diversification and develop new products, we should be able to achieve breakthroughs. Therefore, we will increase investment in product development and procurement network. "
"At present, we plan to develop new products in categories such as apples, pears, and plums. Apples and pears are the top two fruit exports in China. However, during my market visits, I found that Shandong and Hebei, the traditional production areas of these two categories, lack innovation in product development, and there are many loopholes in packaging, and they are rarely updated, so I think this is an opportunity. In terms of pears, we already have some innovative products under experimentation. In addition, many local enterprises still lack reform in terms of management innovation, such as equity incentives and employee benefits. I believe that we have certain advantages in the enterprise management model, which can give full play to the enthusiasm of employees, which is conducive to enterprise development."
Talking about the export of grapes this year, Mr. Liao said that due to the impact of the general economic environment, customer demand and order volume have declined this year, and product profits have declined accordingly. Insufficient consumption power has slowed down sales.
On the other hand, Mr. Liao found that the combination of "traditional varieties + new products" is popular with customers. "In addition to traditional varieties, foreign markets also need new products and small-scale products. Customers are willing to try the combination of "traditional + new products" consisting of 3-5 varieties, and they think it can reduce market risks."
In addition, Mr. Liao also talked about the short supply period of new products and the difficulty of fresh-keeping technology. He said that he is ready to invest a certain amount of time and money to deal with it in order to seize the opportunity because after the attention of new products is improved, they often have more considerable market profits.
Guangdong Holyfresh Fruit Co., Ltd. has its own brand Sprifresh, Holyfresh, and its products are exported to Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Russia, the United States, Canada, Australia and other places.