The Chinese market represents a massive opportunity for European exporters, according to Marc Evrard of pear producer Belgische Fruitveiling (BFV).
The Belgium-based fruit supplier started shipping pears into mainland China 18 months ago, and Evrard claims the Chinese market now accounts for around five per cent of the company’s overall exports.
Speaking at this year’s Cool Logistics conference, held in Antwerp last week, Evrard spoke of the challenges European fresh produce companies can expect when first entering the Asian market.
“The appearance of our Conference pears didn’t initially work with the Chinese public so we had to host in-store promotions and meet with Chinese supermarket buyers to convince them of our varieties’ taste; we now fully expect our business in China to grow and grow,” said Evrard.
This year’s Cool Logistics event welcomed over 200 experts from various sectors of the cold produce chain, and other highlights included a presentation from Pawanexh Kohli of CrossTree, an Indian-based cold chain management company, who pleaded with visitors to help to improve India’s current fresh produce supply chain.
“It is unbelievable that in a country of our size, 95 per cent of fresh produce is still sold off vending carts and there are only 6,000 reefer trucks; the current supply chain is failing and with 61 per cent of India’s spend on food we must now start to improve things across the board,” explained Kohli.
