Lantao has this week received its first container of Mexican avocados from Mission Produce, arriving in Shanghai on 4 November.
While these are not the first avocados to enter the Shanghai market, this fruit will make landmark entrances into Chinese second-tier cities where Lantao has market branches.
These second-tier cities, Zhengzhou, Shenyang and Harbin, all boast populations of more than 8m, where growth is exceeding China’s largest cities.
“We are very excited about the potential for avocados in China,” said Ron Araiza, director of sales for Mission Produce, in a Lantao press release. “Our strategic alliance with Lantao gives us a strong partner in the market who understands avocados and our business model. We believe this market is staged for growth, and we’re excited to be leading the way in this expansion.”
Lantao’s chief executive John Wang emphasised slow but steady growth as they key foundations for the company’s approach to avocado imports.
“The new marketing approach through the inner cities will increase consumer recognition of avocados and lead to more Chinese people trying the fruit for the first time,” he said. “Our goal is to slowly increase consumption through education and trials until there is greater acceptance with the Chinese consumer. As the leader in avocado marketing, Mission is the ideal partner to work with to achieve this goal together.”
Chinese consumers are largely unfamiliar with avocados, which makes education a key consideration for the industry in entering the market.
Lantao has been conducting formal taste tests serving the product in different recipe formats such as a spicy guacamole, which have shown early promise.
Together with Mission’s export sales representative Thomas Padilla, Araiza intends to visit China in December to monitor arrivals and survey the market landscape.
“We believe that along with Lantao we can expand distribution and spark additional avocado consumption in China,” Padilla enthused.
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