Kiwifruit giant Zespri wants to keep growing its China market as it pushes to make its product the top choice among consumers for imported fruit.
China was already Zespri's largest single market, where it sold $446 million worth of kiwifruit last season, and since early 2014, the business had grown 190 per cent in volume, the company's China and Hong Kong country manager Louis Pan said.
"Over the years we have been doing fantastically and have achieved greatly," he told growers and Bay of Plenty business leaders at an event hosted by Zespri and Export New Zealand.
Pan said the result was because of the trust Zespri's New Zealand management had put in its China team.
"China has become the largest single market for Zespri since 2016 and we are the most profitable with the highest orchard gate return for the SunGold market, so it's not only delivered the volume, it's delivered the value as well."
"We want to be top of the imported fruit bowl."
China's high per capita fruit consumption of around 100kg per person per year provided Zespri with an ideal opportunity to reach that goal, he said.
More than 60 per cent of Zespri's fruit volume goes to wholesale markets to reach retail, with the rest headed to hypermarkets. It also sells the fruit directly to customers online, which accounts for about 20 per cent of business.
Zespri markets itself using a brand name, "Jia Pei" which sounds similar to the Chinese word for "double", and its slogan in China translates to "double the good life", he said.
Pan expected it would take about 10 years to double the volume of fruit for the market, but Zespri had to be careful that supply did not outstrip demand.
"We will look at the pace and the speed at how we grow, and at the same time we will have in the back of our mind that this is our goal in 10 years."
