This follows a three-year 'toes in the water' approach with Miss Fresh by Rutger van Wulfen, SAFE’s Far East Manager and Global Fresh founder.
'In China business is based on trust,' said Van Wulfen. 'Delivering consistently for three years has built up a strong relationship of trust between Miss Fresh and SAFE. Now they have given us a preferred supplier contract, which is a huge step for SAFE into the Chinese market.'
Global Fresh is a fruit importer and supermarket service provider that offers customized packaging to a group of China and Hong Kong-based supermarket chains.
'We aim to develop strong, sustainable business relationships with exporters around the world with a keen interest in mainland China as a growing consumer market', said Van Wulfen who sources products from SAFE and other suppliers in South Africa, New Zealand, Egypt, Australia, Peru, Columbia, USA, Chile and the Netherlands.
Miss Fresh is one of the three giants in the e-commerce industry in China that offers high quality fresh goods online to millions of users in more than 30 cities across China. They guarantee clients who order online delivery within two hours. Miss Fresh shows the most growth, which potentially has to do with the set-up of decentralised warehouses that enables them to deliver across China within 2 hours.
'We have been supplying Miss Fresh with grapes and citrus from their start three years ago,' said Van Wulfen. 'Its fantastic news that they perceive us as a supplier that they can trust. The market is growing rapidly with 60 000 oranges that were sold daily during the season and there is a growth forecast of more than 300 000 items of fruit that will be sold to their customers per day during the coming South African citrus season. SAFE is ready to support them all the way', Van Wulfen concluded.
* This foray into China follows a successful trip to Europe by Wibo van den Ende, Marketing and Sales Director of SAFE. Van den Ende visited nine countries in 18 days, including Ireland, England, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Austria, Romania, Germany and Netherlands. He said he was looking forward to signing on new clients in Switzerland and Russia.
