Asia Fruit Logistica forum explores bright future for frozen fruit

Speakers at Asia Fruit Logistica’s second Frozen Fruit and Vegetables Forum highlighted the key opportunities for growth in the sector – particularly in frozen fruits, foodservice, and healthy new drinks.

Linghuey Lee of fresh produce marketing giant JWM Asia empasised the rapid growth of the frozen sector from around $1.8bn in 2025 to an estimated $2.8bn by 2034.

The five main forces driving this growth, she said, are urbanisation; smaller households with less tolerance for food waste; growing demand for convenience products that offer easy preparation, portioning and storage; health consciousness; and the year-round availability of frozen produce, which is less dependent on seasonality.

Asia Pacific’s frozen produce category is still dominated by vegetables, which accounted for around 90 per cent of the region’s frozen produce sector in 2025.

Particularly strong opportunities for growth lie in frozen fruit, Lee believes – largely due to its many different applications: as an ingredient in baking, desserts, smoothies, healthy fruit teas, yoghurts, foodservice, and food to go.

Indeed, using frozen fruit as an ingredient rather than a standalone product is expected to represent the next phase of growth in the sector, according to Lee.

Avocado-based smoothies and ‘functional’ fruit teas are an important example of this, according to Fabian Garcia of Calavo, a California-based supplier of Mexican and American avocados to the Asian market.

“More than 60 per cent of consumers opt for low-sugar or sugar-free products and pay greater attention to natural, clean ingredients,” he told the audience in Hong Kong. “Consequently, functional and herbal beverages are gaining popularity, and the market for them continues to expand. Freshly prepared tea drinks have become a frequent purchase for young people, with over half of Gen Z consumers buying them multiple times a week.”

The benefits of using frozen rather than fresh avocados for such drinks are that they have an 18+ month shelf life, are less exposed to fresh market price volatility, are pre-cut and ready to use, create no skin or seed waste, and require no ripening management.

Meanwhile, Jane Fielding of Canadian producer Coast Cranberries emphasised the versatility and health properties of freeze-dried cranberries, which can be used in desserts, teas, juices, yogurts, and snacks. The producer’s exports to Asia are growing as demand increases in markets such as China, Japan and Taiwan.

Lee pointed out that when it comes to frozen produce as a whole, Asian markets are at different stages in their development, with Japan a particularly mature market and Southeast Asia much less developed in terms of cold chain infrastructure.

She summarised market-by-market opportunities in the APAC region as follows: modern retail and e-commerce in southeast Asia; large-scale processing for domestic consumption in China; convenience, foodservice and premium products in South Korea; and premium and foodservice in both Singapore and Hong Kong.

In China, subsequent speaker Chaowei Wang of SupaFresh pointed out the potential for frozen produce to “bridge the gap” and establish an exporting country’s reputation in China since market access is easier to win for frozen rather than fresh produce.

“Frozen can become the first introduction, establishing the brand and supply chain, and fresh can follow later,” he said, citing bursa black figs from Turkey and Serbian raspberries as successful examples.

“Frozen lets buyers test taste, usage and demand while fresh access is still waiting for approval.”