The Peruvian Hass Avocado Producers and Exporters Association (Prohass) have announced their latest statistics, mentioning that the country expects to export around 467,000 tons of avocados in the 2021 season, which is 27% more than in the previous season.
Peru has already become the largest supplier of avocados to the Chinese market with a very stable supply and a high-quality product. Right now, is the peak period of avocado sales in China. Juan Carlos Paredes, President of ProHass, recently talked about market expectations and the products promoted by the association.
“Optimize supply channels, guarantee product quality”
Juan Carlos first introduced the characteristics of Peruvian avocados. “Peruvian avocados are planted along the coastline of the country. The soil here is sandy and there is little rainfall. In addition, there are very few plant diseases and insect pests. Those are ideal conditions for an avocado plantation. Because of these unique geographical and meteorological conditions, the dry matter content of Peruvian avocados can reach 22%-30%. The flavor of Peruvian avocados is very rich. We guarantee the highest quality in our production areas and we take advantage of refrigerated distribution from production areas to ripening centers in various places and on to retail centers, all within 50 days from the harvest. Furthermore, we use specialized control mechanisms to guarantee the optimum flavor and freshness of our avocados.”
Avocados have become quite fashionable in recent years and they can be found on the tables of many Chinese consumers. A growing number of people are now familiar with the fruit, adding it to their diets. This summer, ProHass has put together a three-month campaign to work hard on promoting the benefits of the Peruvian avocado to local consumers in China.
Simultaneous development of online and offline retail channels
Juan Carlos continued to introduce the role of the ProHass in the promotion of the Peruvian avocado in the country. The association is currently involved in a series of activities to help to promote the Peruvian avocado. “Most of our strategic partners in China work on major wholesale markets. We have organized promotional activities in cooperation with them to help them with support on the spot and spread professional education on our product. To open the campaign, we set up the ‘Avocado! New Life!’ activity in Shanghai Huizhan Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market. That activity, which officially opened the 2021 promotional season for Peruvian avocados, included the presence of Mr. David Gamarra and Ms. Carla Cieza, the General Consul of Peru in Shanghai, and the Economic Attaché at the Peruvian consulate respectively, among other honored guests. This campaign indicates how important the Peruvian avocado industry considers the Chinese market,” said Paredes.
“In addition to promotional activities in wholesale markets, we are working hard to familiarize Chinese consumers in supermarkets and other retail markets with our avocados. This is the peak period of the Peruvian avocado retail season, so we are getting a big exposure. We offer customers free taste samples and sales promotions in many cities around the country, where we are having amazing results and feedback from consumers” said Juan.
“However, we know very well the importance of online shopping and social media, especially in China were many new e-commerce platforms emerged and evolved fast in recent years. The pandemic has pushed even more consumers in this direction, changing shopping patterns in favor of online shops. That’s why Peruvian avocados are readily available on major e-commerce platforms such as T-Mall and JD and why we are promoting our avocados image in these platforms too. This is reinforced with social media campaigns and with influencers on many platforms, where more than 100 internet celebrities will post and perform livestream broadcasts to promote the Peruvian avocado to Chinese viewers.”
“The Peruvian avocado used to be a ‘small product’ in the eyes of Chinese consumers, but thanks to our multi-media approach and the integration of online and offline retail channels, Chinese awareness about Peruvian avocados is growing stronger every day. We want Chinese consumers, when they think about high quality tasty avocados, to think first about Peru. So we are very pleased with the development of the campaign until now.”
Peruvian Hass Avocado Producers and Exporters Association (ProHass)
The members of the Association include various small, medium, and large scale producers. Together they control around 80% of the overall surface area devoted to avocado plantation in Peru. “The association works hard to guarantee a stable supply of high-quality Peruvian avocados for the Chinese market. We also offer support in areas such as production technology and scientific research, to improve the quality of avocado production, packaging, and commercialization in the Peruvian avocado industry,” said Paredes.
He also highlighted the great importance of including small and new producers to the latest developments in technology, helping them to implement good practices and production hygiene standards required by the big markets. “We lead scientific research programs and facilitate the transfer of technology, applying economies of scale; as well as giving assistance to our medium and small producers so they can access international markets too.
“China is one of the largest export markets for Peruvian avocados in terms of export volume and one of the fastest-growing markets as well. We hope to connect and work together with even more retailers, e-commerce traders, and brick-and-mortar store owners in China, so that together we can provide Chinese consumers with top-quality, fresh avocados from Peru.”
ProHass
Tel.:5112251626
prohass@prohass.com.pe
https://www.prohass.com.pe/