Cultural customs drive demand in Taiwan

Taiwan grows a rich variety of fruit, but for most temperate fruit, such as apples and cherries, it still relies heavily on imports.

Its roughly 20m population has an annual per-capita fruit consumption of around 135kg, according to local industry sources.

“The demand for imported fruit in Taiwan remains high. Cherries, apples, and blueberries, which we import in large quantities, are scarcely produced locally,” says George Liu of Kingo, a key importer in Taiwan. “In terms of volume, apples are the largest imported fruit category in Taiwan.”

Demand for apples has remained consistently high, a trend closely related to Taiwan’s religious customs. According to Liu, in Taiwan, both households and businesses hold rituals twice a month to worship their deities or ancestors.

The main suppliers from the Northern Hemisphere are the US and Japan, while in the Southern Hemisphere, New Zealand and South Africa are key origins. “Last year, due to some quarantine issues, the import of South African apples to Taiwan was suspended. It has recently reopened, and the first shipments are currently being sent,” says Catherine Liu, Kingo channel manager.

Eason Chi, executive director of Rings Fresh, notes that while apples account for 40 per cent of all categories in the company’s operations, cherries still rank top in value terms.

“The US and Chile are the two largest suppliers for cherries,” Chi says. “Last year, we imported around 100,000 cartons of US cherries to the Taiwan market.”

Online exploration

Joanne Chen, Zespri’s market manager for Taiwan, tells Asiafruit that online consumption in Taiwan still has many limitations.

“Taiwan’s online payment methods are not very developed and mainly rely on cash transactions,” she explains. “The high rate of fresh food loss puts pressure on businesses. Moreover, the high cost of door-to-door delivery in Taiwan is mostly borne by consumers. With fruit retailers close to the neighbourhood, local consumers prefer to go to physical stores to directly evaluate price and quality.”

However, the seemingly constrained online channel is not without a “breakout”. “Our physical store Sweet Seasons in downtown Taipei is serving as a coldstorage and product display centre,” says Chi. “It can be used for hosting our offline marketing activities, and to keep the distance to end consumers within an affordable range. We can then deliver directly to consumers’ doors through our logistics service.” Another common online-offline integrated approach uses convenience stores as the delivery endpoint, where consumers pick up their orders in-store.

“7-Eleven has more than 6,000 locations in Taiwan, and each store manager functions similarly to a group-buy leader in mainland China,” explains Catherine Liu.

“Consumers can pre-order through the store’s website or mobile app and pick up the goods in-store after delivery. Since the store has refrigeration equipment, the cold chain can be maintained continuously.”

During the recent US cherry season, Kingo received many group-buy orders through 7-Eleven, according to Catherine Liu.

Consumption trends

In today’s world, where inflation is rampant globally, Taiwan’s consumers have also become more conservative. However, demand for novel varieties or high-quality imported products remains substantial.

“In recent years, the prices of imported fruits have increased significantly,” says George Liu. “As prices rise, consumer expectations are also higher. There is still market demand for high-end products, but people are less willing to purchase mid-to-low-end products, especially imported ones.”

In the meantime, consumers are leaning towards smaller packaging when buying fruits.

“Many supermarkets now use small packages,” says Catherine Liu. “We initially started repackaging in a limited space and later found that the demand was very high. Next we are going to expand this service.”

Chi says “the ideal situation is to keep the unit price within NT$100 (US$3) for small packages. We have been working on different designs as well.”

With the accelerating pace of life among the younger generation and their pursuit of convenience, the supply of fresh-cut fruits in Taiwan’s convenience stores has become very common.

“Taiwan’s young people find eating fruits troublesome, as a result, we sell Zespri kiwifruit in fresh-cut form in convenience stores,” says Chen. “Office workers can also buy a nutritious portion of fruit when they purchase lunch.”

Another developing trend is that consumers in Taiwan are increasingly willing to pay high prices for locally produced fruits.

“Previously, people thought that local fruits were not good enough, but now it has changed,” George Liu says. “This is partly due to the concept of lower carbon footprint and support for local agriculture.”

Marketing approaches

Zespri continues to enhance brand awareness and trust in the Taiwan market, thanks to the efforts of its local team. With a deep understanding of Taiwan’s worship culture, Zespri has effectively promoted kiwifruit as an offering for rituals.

“We use well-known fortune tellers to share on media, not as endorsements, but from the perspective of the worship culture, explaining why kiwifruit should be used as offerings,” explains Chen.

Chi states the fruit industry typically has limited budgets, and determining how to effectively use budgets to maximum effect is a challenge for marketers.

“We have our in-house designer and marketing staff, which can be considered one of our competitive advantages,” he says.

Kingo also achieved impressive results by partnering with 7-Eleven for a marketing campaign during the last Chilean cherry season.

“We invited members of the Chilean Cherry Committee to Taiwan to train 7-Eleven store managers, so they can educate their customers. By introducing Chile’s geographical conditions and cultivation methods, we boosted confidence in the product,” says Catherine Liu.

“This was 7-Eleven’s first season attempting to sell Chilean cherries and its first time trying this type of marketing strategy. Due to the success of this campaign, it had a breakthrough impact on 7-Eleven’s sales during the Lunar New Year period.”