It is the peak season for longan sales in Thailand. Affected by the pandemic, suppliers are facing many challenges such as small-quantity sales and low prices this season. Mr. Chen, the head of Anhui Five Stars Fruit, a longan exporter in Thailand, was interviewed by FreshPlaza and shared his views on the market situation of this season's longan.
"The production area of longan in Thailand is much higher than in China, and its quality and taste are better than those of the same domestic category. It also has obvious advantages in packaging and processing. Therefore, we have established cooperative longan processing factories in Lamphun Province in northern Thailand and Chanthaburi Province in eastern Thailand, and strive to bring high-quality fresh Thai longan to domestic consumers,” said Chen.
Thai longan usually enters China by sea and land. When talking about the impact of the pandemic on the market supply and demand of imported longan in Thailand, Chen said: "Although the efficiency of customs clearance at ports is not high due to the pandemic and slow logistics, due to the long shelf life of Thai longan, the impact on its quality is still rather small. At the same time, there is still a certain gap between domestic high-quality longan and Thai longan. Thai longan has obvious advantages in price, quality and taste," Chen said.
"On the other hand, although Thailand's production area has fully returned to normal, the domestic epidemic situation is still severe, which has a certain negative impact on sales. At present, the sales of longan in major markets across China are relatively poor, mainly due to the pandemic, the sales are in a small volume with low prices. "
There are cooperative processing factories in many places in Thailand, and extending the delivery time is an advantage for Anhui Five Stars Fruit. "The peak shipping season for our northern processing plant is from October to the end of January, and the peak season for the eastern factory is from September to the end of February of the following year," Chen said.
In order to reduce the impact on domestic sales and improve consumers' enthusiasm for purchasing, Anhui Five Stars Fruit has carried out a series of brand promotion activities. "I think that the purpose of brand promotion is to improve quality and build a reputation. Our company has strict requirements on the quality of products, and also, we can ensure stable supply and give key customers discounts in promotional activities."
Anhui Five Stars Fruit was established in 2003. The upstream of the company has established base procurement relationships with 17 countries and regions around the world and 31 core fruit-producing areas with geographical indications in China.
When talking about the company's advantages, Chen said: "We have certain regional advantages, and the company pays great attention to customer needs for multi-category expansion, integrating market wholesale, supermarket, restaurants, chain stores, online platforms and other channels, relying on a complete supply chain system to cover the sales range of all formats. Starting from product categories, supply chains and channels, the company has first-class competitiveness in the field of fruit products." Chen said.
"We are also constantly diversifying our products, diversifying our customers, and constantly enriching our own product categories. On the one hand, it responds to the expansion of the business scale for major wholesale and supermarket customers, and on the other hand, product diversification also enables the company to better withstand the price if some fruit varieties experience market fluctuations."
When talking about the company's marketing plan for the future, Chen said, "We plan to cooperate with more domestic and foreign top fruit brands and bases in the upstream, and the downstream company will further expand the sales channels. On the basis of existing customers, we'll further expand high-quality regional large-scale e-commerce, chain supermarkets and other fruit sales channels, and continue to expand the fruit market share in Anhui Province and other cities."
Anhui Five Stars Fruit plans to participate in the next Shanghai International Fruit Expo. "Shanghai International Fruit Expo can strongly promote and improve the branding of Anhui Five Stars Fruit. This year, the company will expand the booth area and incorporate more brand features and innovative elements into the booth design. With the rise of cities in the middle of China and Anhui's integration into the Yangtze River Delta integration camp, Anhui Five Stars Fruit will further expand and explore more markets," said Chen.
More information:
Anhui Five Stars Fruit
Qian Juntao, Purchasing Manager
Tel: +86 13855128564