Chinese fruit e-retailer Fruitday is using its digital prowess to bring a new variety of cherries into the market as well as kick-start online promotions for organic kiwifruit.
For the first year, Orondo Ruby cherries will have a chance to capture the appetite of Chinese consumers, the Northwest variety to be sold exclusively through Fruitday.
Last year, Fruitday teamed up with Northwest Cherry Growers and TMall for online promotions, selling cherries from the US directly to consumers.
“After the success of our promotions last year, everyone’s cottoned on,” Fruitday’s co-founder Loren Zhao told Asiafruit, adding that increased competition isn’t always a bad thing. “It’s new, it’s emerging and it’s quickly growing, but that’s a good thing for the whole market.”
Organics online
Keen to crack into the organic market, kiwifruit exporter Zespri is teaming up with e-retailer Fruitday to promote its organic range of kiwifruit, with an estimated 100,000 trays of Zespri organic kiwifruit to be sold in China this year.
“It’s early days and the volumes aren’t huge,” Zespri’s Shanghai-based Matt Crawford told Asiafruit. “But there is real potential to develop the organic category.” While organic kiwifruit has been sold in China since 2009, Zespri became the first foreign fruit exporter to meet China’s organic certifications in 2011.
Both Crawford and Fruitday’s Loren Zhao said they’re excited about this year’s online promotions, but one of the challenges they face is distinguishing between organic produce and food safety concerns among consumers who are new to the organic market.
“The demand for organic food in Asia is largely underpinned by food safety drivers, through the extra assurance of using only approved organic crop protection and nutrition inputs,” said Crawford, who adds Zespri is committed to identifying and growing the niche market for organic fruit in China, taking it away from the mainstream and linking it back to the story of organic produce.
“This is an exciting chance for us,” said Crawford. “Fruitday is one of the fastest growing online retailers and the future is really in online sales.”
