China is number one grower of citrus worldwide with 20 million tons in 2016, while it also import 21,000 tons of mandarin, in 2015/16 season, an increase of 10% over the previous year.
“We expect to dramatically increase sales volumes of delicious Jaffa Orri in China market in 2017,” says Tal Amit, head of the citrus sector at Israel’s Plant Production and Marketing Board. Chinese are fond of fresh produce and seeking for premium mandarins and are willing to pay for its delicious taste.”
According to PMA, China is the world’s largest e-commerce market and is rapidly growing. One of the main drivers of this exponential growth was sales of online fresh fruit; online purchase of fresh produce is quickly becoming a preferred purchase channel for Chinese consumers, especially among young professionals in Tier I cities. Sales of online fresh produce were nearly $4 billion in 2014, with industry forecasts predicting a market size of $16 billion and, total fresh produce market segment of 15% by 2018.
“Jaffa Orri mandarin is well established in Western Europe, especially in France and Germany,” explains Amit. ”The growing demand for mandarin in China encourage us to conduct a market research in China and Japan to learn about Jaffa Orri potential in these markets, including e-commerce outlets . We hope to receive the consumer research results in April 2017.”
