The first Chilean-grown blueberries to be marketed under a Chinese brand have gone on sale in China. Grown by China’s largest blueberry producer, Joyvio, the blueberries went on sale on the country’s biggest C2C e-commerce site Taobao.com on Friday.
The campaign was launched by Chile’s ambassador to China, Jorge Heine, who appeared on the website together with 11 high ranking officials to present the new season blueberries and cherries.
Joyvio is owned by Legend Holdings, the only Chinese company to have invested in its own fruit production in South America. Since 2012 it has acquired five Chilean fruit companies and formed a strategic partnership with one of Chile’s biggest fruit producers, Subsole.
In all Legend has invested US$164m to create an international production network in primary materials. In Australia it has forged a strategic partnership with Perfection Fresh Australia to set up large-scale planting bases in a number of regions providing Chinese consumers with cherries, grapes, oranges and mangoes, amongst others.
A spokesperson for Alibaba, owner of China’s leading B2C e-commerce site Tmall.com, noted that the Chilean ambassador had proved “very effective in publicising the country’s emblematic products” and that this approach had also been used by a number of other countries including New Zealand, the UK and Canada.
