This year saw the first Canadian cherry exports from Australian company Sai World, together with Canadian sister company Nature's Connection under the Sweet Picks brand. Sam Vasala from Sai World said that despite an uncertain start, the season turned out well. "We should have continued for longer, but the rain at the end of the season has meant there has been more occurrence of mildew."
"We will airfreight the last cherries tomorrow; it is too risky from a quality point of view to continue any longer. Demand has been good; we had expected less demand due to the high volumes from Washington. The big volumes did cause disappointing prices in the beginning, but the demand was consistent, and our fruit moved well. We took extra special care with every box when packing; the grader was already tuned up high for quality, and we had people making the extra final checks. Our team from Tasmania was in Canada to oversee the packing."
© Sai World
The Sweet Picks brand was new on the Asian and Middle East markets this year, but it soon started to pick up, and people were starting to ask for it.
"We have been very careful towards the end of the season to keep the quality high. For our customers who still want our cherries, we are informing them of the possible risks. All in all, it has been a good season, and demand increased as our brand became recognised and prices increased by 100% at the end of the season. We were getting consistently good prices, and I felt our brand was up there with the others."
© Sai World
Sam said they are concentrating on the Middle East and Asian countries with the exception of China, "Surprisingly, probably due to the Chinese economy, the Middle East and Southeast Asian markets have performed better than China this year. Hopefully, the economy will improve and we can supply more to China next year. We only did a small amount of cherries in Chinese retailers; we are not doing anything with wholesalers due to the lower prices, but we will revisit this next year. At the end of the day, it has to make good business sense."
For more information:
Sam Vasala
Sai World Pty Ltd
Tel: +61 (07) 5641 2217
Mob: +61 470406579
Email: [email protected]
www.saiworld.com.au
