Shanghai Junli and North Bay Produce join forces for the Peruvian blueberry season

To celebrate the new Peruvian blueberry season, Chinese importer Shanghai Junli and US producer and marketer North Bay Produce Produce held a joint season launch ceremony at the Huizhan Market in Shanghai on 6 August. During the event, the first container of North Bay Produce-branded Peruvian blueberries of the new season was officially opened.

The collaboration between Junli and North Bay Produce began last season. This year, the two parties will further deepen their cooperation, not only increasing the trade volume of blueberries from Peru, but also jointly developing the business in China for other fruit categories.

“We started our cooperation last year. The communication between the teams has been smooth, the overall product quality is stable and good. Therefore, both parties are excited to continue together this year to grow the business,” said Andy, international procurement manager at Junli.

Ezequiel Gimenez, director of Latin American procurement at North Bay Produce, revealed the company is looking to strengthen its presence in the China market.

“As part of our strategy, we aim to strengthen our wholesale channel presence with the help of our commercial partner, Junli in Shanghai and other new partners in various important markets in China, while also to develop retail and e-commerce channels,” he said.

The first shipment of North Bay Produce Peruvian blueberries to China this season consisted of mainly the Emerald variety.

“This variety performs well in terms of bloom, firmness, and taste, and it is moderately priced, suitable for most consumers,” Andy said.

Gimenez said that due to adverse factors such as heavy rain affecting the northern production regions in China, the new season’s domestically-produced blueberries currently in the market were lacking in quality, presenting more market opportunities for Peruvian blueberries.

As the season progresses, Junli and North Bay Produce plan to supply more premium blueberry varieties to the Chinese market. Gimenez is particularly optimistic about the performance of the Sekoya Beauty and Sekoya Pop varieties.

“This year, part of our new strategy is to promote our new brand Reserve, for our Sekoya varieties. We have various production zones in Peru (north and central) which allows a stable supply for China from the beginning to the end of the Peru season. Our strategy to Asia and China is to provide year-round blueberries from different regions around the world,” Gimenez said.