Munch'n Kiwiberry punnet

Having recently developed a new marketing campaign for its Munch’n kiwiberry brand, Freshmax New Zealand is hopeful of driving sales growth in a number of key markets this season.

“Building awareness in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Japan is a key focus for 2017, as we are confident our superfruit will go very well in these markets,” says Freshmax New Zealand’s division manager – export, Tracey Burns. “We have also put some fruit into Indonesia in the early part of our 2017 harvest, so we are looking to see some growth here as well.”

Other markets Munch’n fruit will be sold into include Singapore, Taiwan and Australia, while Freshmax is hopeful market access will reopen to China in time for the 2018 harvest.

The new marketing campaign, which includes a new global Munch’n kiwiberry website, will be delivered through a range of trade, online, public relations and in-store activities.

Burns says the New Zealand summer has been kind to kiwiberry growers, with extended sunshine hours meaning maturity is tracking well, with high dry matter in fruit. This has resulted in an early harvest, with export programmes getting underway in the last week of February.

A full version of this story, along with a feature on the development of the New Zealand kiwiberry sector, will appear in the March edition of Asiafruit.