The Chilean fresh fruit industry is re-evaluating its promotional programme in Europe to address the changing demands of the European customer and ensure its members are best positioned to benefit from emerging markets and trends, according to a press release from the Chilean Fresh Fruit Association (CFFA).
Ronald Bown, chairman of the board of the Chilean Fresh Fruit Exporters Association (Asoex), said choosing the right market strategy is vital if Chile is to build on its position as the Southern Hemisphere’s leading fruit exporter.
“Over the last few years, while continuing to support our fruit in our exporters’ maturing western European markets, we have made a consistent effort to follow the “retailer footprint” in central and eastern Europe,” Mr Bown explained.
According to Christian Carvajal, Asoex’s marketing manager for Europe and Asia, Chilean fresh fruit exports remain relatively low in new and emerging markets around the world.
“The industry estimates that its potential untapped B2B target group is 53,000 buyers of fresh fruit in 130 countries and 2,300 companies around the world,” noted Mr Carvajal. “Chile still has a penetration rate of just 43 per cent of the world market, so there is plenty of room to grow.”
And much of that potential is in central and eastern Europe, according to Mr Carvajal, away from traditional western European markets where Chile is already one of the leaders and ultra-competitive retail environments mean promotional activity is driven by price.
Juan Carlos Sepulveda, general manager of the Chilean Fruit Growers Federation (Fedefruta), added that emerging markets (where the numbers of food retailers and outlets are expanding to reflect the increasing consumer spend on grocery) are becoming more interested in growing their ranges of counter-seasonal products.
“The developing relationships between these retailers and their supply chains is creating a demand our fruit products and strong promotional support,” Mr Sepulveda said.
With that in mind, Chile’s fruit promotions in Europe will see some subtle changes in 2011, according to Lianne Jones, European field manager at CFFA.
“We will continue to increase our point-of-sale promotional activity to support Chilean fruit in emerging European markets and to investigate where our opportunities may lie in the next few years, particularly in Turkey and the Former Soviet Union and central and eastern European markets.
“While we do that, we will maintain our retailer support initiatives in our western European markets, while re-focusing on some of the key issues and challenges facing the global fruit industry, in order to strengthen Chile’s position as a preferred business partner,” Ms Jones added.
Chile’s attendance at trade shows such as Fruit Logistica, World Food Moscow and World Food Ukraine will be key to allowing exporters to make new contacts and develop new business.
The industry will also hold five workshops in emerging markets to establish relationships with stakeholders and build awareness of the reputation and scope of the Chilean fresh fruit industry, and recently invited a trade delegation from the Ukraine to Chile.
“The group represented 60 per cent of the fresh fruit import industry in the Ukraine and interest in Chile reached unprecedented levels,” explained Ms Jones. “We want to organise more of these missions.
“The focus has to be on buyers from and suppliers to retail chains in emerging markets who are not part of the larger European chain networks and have little or no experience of working with Chilean fruit exporters.”
For the full report, see p52-54 of Eurofruit Magazine’s February issue.
