The Chilean cherry industry has a range of promotional activities aimed at consumers, distributors and importers lined up for the forthcoming season as it prepares for major push into China, its biggest market.
The campaign, organised by the Chilean Cherry Committee, Asoex and ProChile, aims to boost sales during peak periods such as Chinese New Year on 19 February and an anticipated supply peak during the first week of January, according to Asoex president Ronald Bown.
Christian Carvajal, Asoex’s marketing director EMEA, said a key focus of the campaign would be online promotions on China’s three biggest online retailers: T-Mall, JD and Fruitday.
“We’re also organising workshops with importers and distributors in emerging markets aimed at raising awareness of Chilean cherries and their key characteristics and availability,” Carvajal said. “We are due to meet with representatives from the wholesale markets in Shenyang, Qingdao, Chongqing and Wuhan, all of which are major population hubs with a rapidly growing middle class that is not only increasing its purchasing power but also acquiring a taste for high quality products.”
The workshops are scheduled to take place in mid-December.
For the first time, the 2014/15 campaign will also feature television adverts that will be played ahead of films and programmes shown on China’s online video channels during December and January, just ahead of the peak arrival season and Chinese New Year festivities. Throughout January promotions will also be carried out via social media sites including YouKu, the Chinese equivalent of YouTube , and WeChat, while in the last week of January this will be supplemented by a campaign on one of the country’s biggest shopping channels, TV Shopping.
Finally, point of sale activities are being planned for a number of leading retailers in Beijing, Shanghai, Wenzhou, Shenyang, Chengdu, Tianjin, Suzhou and Wuhan.
Chilean cherry production is expected to top 100,000 tonnes for 2014/15, up from 68,313 tonnes last season.
