Four Guangdong enterprises, including Xuwen Muchsweet Produce Cooperatives which specialises in pineapple production, staged at the Macfrut 2023, a leading trade fair for the global fruit and vegetables sector, last week in Rimini of Italy, aiming to explore business opportunities in the European market.
Macfrut has been successfully held for 40 sessions and is the largest and most influential professional exhibition in Europe and the Mediterranean region. The exhibition has become an important channel to connect Chinese fruit and vegetable enterprises with the European market.
It is the first time for Guangdong enterprises to participate in Macfrut offline. Owen Chen, General Manager of Xuwen Muchsweet Produce Cooperatives, saw offline attendance after the pandemic as a rare opportunity that brought satisfying responses.
Chen was talking with a foreign buyer. (Photo provided to GDToday)
"We appreciate such a chance to communicate face-to-face with professional buyers in a top market and try to get orders. After attending the exhibition, my greatest impression is that Xuwen's pineapples can't just be sold in the domestic market. Instead, they need to go global and develop a new way," said Chen.
Chen explained that his company had exhibited three pineapple varieties: Jinzuan Pineapple, Hand-Torn Pineapple, and Mango Pineapple. With a higher sweetness and more tender taste, they are different from the Golden Pineapple from South America in the European market.
Thumbs up for Xuwen pineapples from foreign buyers. (Photo provided for GDToday）
As a result, many customers from the European Union and the Middle East expressed a keen interest in Xuwen's pineapples and praised their high quality for satisfying the demands of the high-end market. "After trying our samples, the buyers were astounded and came to talk about working together. I believe this will soon result in a breakthrough in trading," he said.
Xuwen County, Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province, is China's largest pineapple-producing area, with 350,000 mu (about 57658 acres) of pineapple fields, and its annual output accounts for one-third of the total output of pineapples in China.
Figuring out the way for Xuwen's pineapples to go global
Despite the high quality of Xuwen's pineapples, Chen is thinking of ways to increase exports of the fruit to foreign markets.
Although Chen was aware that South America supplies the majority of the pineapples sold in Europe, he was still surprised to learn that the pineapples sold in Italy's local markets are almost entirely from Costa Rica. It proves Costa Rica has a perfect supply chain (for pineapples) and earns a huge market share, said Chen.
Given this market challenge, Chen seriously considered marketing their pineapples in other countries, particularly in Europe. For instance, Chen suggested that if Xuwen's pineapples have a better flavour, they might be able to command a higher price in the high-end market. They might also be able to enter the market if there are any supply gaps for the rival products.
"In order to meet the challenges of the future, I constantly advocate for our pineapples to upgrade their industrial structure and become more standardised," said Chen. Compared with the other large farms in the world, he thinks that China's agriculture should further utilise its strengths to go global.
Author: Will, Julian (intern)
Editor: Olivia, Nan, James
