The cherry season is currently in full swing for Aartsen in Europe and Asia. "While we are already distributing cherries from Chile and Argentina since the end of October the season for New Zealand, mainland Australia and Tasmania is only just starting," says Wayne Jongerius of Aartsen Asia."Our main partners in Asia are wholesalers, re-export and catering companies, hotels, online businesses, fruit shops, processing industry, and repacking facilities. In addition, while we are 100% focused on the free market in Europe, we have been developing retail business in Asia as well. In total we handle approximately 1.3 million cartons of cherries a year in Asia."
As Aartsen we have over 135+ distribution points in Asia and every channel has its own preference regarding country of origin, variety, packaging, color and sizing. "To serve each market as its best we keep expanding our office and commercial team. Currently, we have Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Mandarin and Cantonese languages in our Hong Kong office. Furthermore, we have been expanding our team in mainland China as well where we are more and more focused on 2nd and 3th tier sales. Volume wise 50% is being sold to mainly 2nd tier cities in China of which our main volume is distributed directly to Chongqing, Guiyang, Chengdu, Xiamen, Zhengzhou, Changsha, Xian, Jiaxing, Jinhua and Shenyang to name a few. The other 50% is being distributed to Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, India, Singapore, Philippines, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Myanmar, Hong Kong and Malaysia. This chosen strategy is paying off now, since many producers want to diversify their crop into various countries and don’t rely to much on certain markets alone. That’s where we add a lot of value with our widespread distribution and 52 weeks a year presence in these markets. With this strategy we like to offer our partners on the production side an extension in these countries."
"Outside China, our cherry volume has tripled over the past 2 years, we have a strong position and we experience an increasing cherry consumption in most of these countries mainly due to a growing middle class. Currently, the main challenges for the cherry season are on the logistical part. We already see a big shortage in flight availability from Chile this season to Southeast Asia which creates opportunities for specifically New Zealand and Tasmania."
Since the start in Asia, 10 years ago, Aartsen continuously prioritizes developing new markets and sales channels for its year-round distribution. Amid covid challenges Aartsen managed to grow in volume in the past 2 years from 4 million to almost 7 million boxes of fruit. "We distribute fruit to over 135+ distribution points in 16 countries in Asia. In Europe cherries is as well an ever growing item for us so we foresee stable growth in the coming years. Nothing is too far or too crazy for us."
For more information:
Wayne Jongerius
Aartsen Asia
Tel: +852 37 05 55 01
[email protected]
www.aartsen.com