The Asian markets in the post-Covid phase appear to be the most buoyant and dynamic ones on a global scale, in particular China, considered the engine of Asia, which has recovered faster than any other market and undoubtedly represents a fast-growing and very interesting scenario. We spoke about this with Sara Grasso, export manager at Oranfrizer srl, a company of the Unifrutti Group, which boasts long experience in Far Eastern markets.
Sara Grasso
"According to a recent research study by QuestMobile," says Sara Grasso, "the number of consumers with medium-high salaries (as of July 2022) amounts to 163 million, which represents more than 13% of the total Chinese population. By 2025, 71 million households could be part of this already large segment for business opportunities. In short, the People's Republic of China is a market that represents an unprecedented challenge for the whole world, including Europe and Italy."
“The new generation of consumers in China, especially the wealthier ones, always research about the products before their purchase,' explains the manager. 'What is important to them is the origin of the product, the ingredients, the nutritional intake, and food safety. New and savvy consumers also become fond of brands! If they are satisfied after consumption, they buy the same product again. And all of this happens over the internet. For instance, the increasingly popular 'Little Red Book', also known as Xiaohongshu 小红书, the Chinese equivalent of Instagram. It is the best and most popular platform in China for reading reviews of products, especially foreign ones, where you can learn about opinions of influencers or other consumers who have already experienced that particular product.”
“You can also read about the history of manufacturers and discover high quality brands on their social networks. Little Red Book reached 200 million users in 2022, with 72 per cent of users born in the 1990s. As already mentioned, sales opportunities in the Chinese market are growing for European and Italian products, especially premium and high-quality ones. At the moment, the protocols in place with Italy concern kiwis and blood oranges, which are, however, not very competitive, also due to the reduced quality of the products upon arrival, after 50 days of ocean shipping.
"We hope that China's booming growth will bring a desire on the part of the population for more and more new products, and that it will want to invest in faster means of transport, capable of facilitating the import of fresh produce from Europe and Italy. We need to reduce transit times and encourage growth by volume and quality. Could trains be an alternative to long ship routes? It has been talked about for some time, but the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine is certainly not conducive to this hypothesis."
'However, there is demand for Italian fruit from the Chinese market. As a matter of fact, Italy and China are negotiating new protocols on the export of pears, apples and grapes. With this in mind, I will be attending the Asia Fruit Logistica in Hong Kong in September 2023, where I will try to seize all the opportunities that the Chinese market offers, together with the rest of Asia, because I am sure that the future expansion of overseas exports, including Italian fruit and vegetables, will be focused in that area,” concluded Sara Grasso.
Per maggiori informazioni:
Sara Grasso
Export Manager di Oranfrizer srl,
Gruppo Unifrutti
[email protected]