Asiafruit Knowledge Centre: Asia’s 30-year growth

To mark the 30th anniversary of Asiafruit Magazine, Asia Fruit Knowledge Centre’s three-day programme opened with a high-powered Asiafruit Congress panel discussion reflecting on Asia’s shifting market over the past three decades.  

Wayne Prowse of Fresh Intelligence introduced the session with a market overview, sharing the significant growth in imports into the region.  

“Thirty years ago, 3.4mn tonnes (of fresh fruit) were imported into Asia, and last year [it had grown to] 17.3mn tonnes,” Prowse said. 

China’s rapid rise 

This growth has been largely driven by China’s rapid rise as a consumer market and world economy.   

“It used to be that the US and intra-Asia [led the import trade] with mainly the Philippines bananas to Japan and then some high-quality apples and citrus from the US,” Prowse said. “But the US has been steadily going down and is less significant in the overall supply.” 

While Southern hemisphere supply has increased by 7.4 per cent per annum over the 30-year period, intra-Asia trade maintains a significant lead in volume at 12.5mn tonnes in 2024. Over 30 per cent of this volume comes from China. 

“[China’s advances in fruit production] is really beginning to change the trade landscape, particularly in South-East Asia, with the growth of Chinese exports into the region,” said John Hey, managing director Fruitnet Asia and editor of Asiafruit Magazine. 

Konna Mu, general manager of Joy Wing Mau Group’s international procurement platform, said imports remain crucial to China’s fresh produce trade but that the increase in quality and volume of domestic production has opened up new trade avenues.  

“China is still a market that is looking for good quality fruit, it’s still a market where we are willing to pay for the premium, [imports] are still increasing” he said. “But also, the Chinese production now is giving us a different perspective.” 

He added that Joy Wing Mau has increased its exports significantly to nearby markets within Asia.  

“We are actually exporting quite a big amount to the Asian market, like our blueberries from our own production as well as Chinese grapes, Chinese mandarins,” he said. “All of those premium items are now taking on a bigger market share.” 

Despite this, Belgian Fruit Valley’s commercial director, Marc Evrard, said he wasn’t worried. 

“I don’t think the need will decrease for imported produce, not just volume wise, but also to have a diverse offer to the customers,” Evrard said. “You have beautiful produce in China. You have beautiful production in the regions, but you cannot produce everything for everybody, and that leaves opportunities for people like myself, and I dare say, also for Felipe to supply produce.” 

Although for Felipe Casanova, commercial director at Copefrut, Chile’s reliance on China as the predominant market for its cherry production makes the company more wary.  

“We send 92 per cent of our volume to China. And to be honest, if we try to divert part of that volume, we have enough to flood any market in the US, Europe or Latin America,” he explained. “But we also know that this market has been able to react and evolve, and we are sure that this will be the case in regards to what is coming.” 

Casanova added that as the market shifts, targeting customer and consumer preference will become more necessary.   

“In the past, I think the opportunity was so big and it was quite easy to develop the business that we did not have to give too much attention to what we were doing,” he said. “It will [now] require a company to be more conscious about what they are sending, to make sure to send what the market needs.” 

Alongside this refined strategy, Casanova said Copefrut is also diversifying its markets by sending fruit to Europe, Central America and other countries within Asia.   

“But the reality is that even if those countries can grow or duplicate the volume from one year to the other, it will not move too much volume,” he said. “Even if we double the volume with the other markets, we will still need China as the main receiver. So, we will keep working with diversification, we’ll keep pushing for that, but we are still quite far away from it having a big impact.” 

Retail changes 

Asia’s retail landscape has also seen major changes over the last 30 years.  

“The first shift was very much focused on moving from the traditional wet markets to a more modern supermarket environment,” Hey explained. “More recently, we’ve seen the rise of online and digital and a shift to a multi-channel market. So we’re now dealing with a very sophisticated consumer in Asia.” 

Steve Quinn, president at Pivit Global, said the major difference between Asia’s retail landscape and the rest of the world is how fast the diversification has happened.  

“Online has expanded dramatically, very, very fast,” he said. “I think from a supplier standpoint, you have to really think about how you manage your end-to-end products. Not only do you deliver to the warehouse, you deliver to the store, then you have to deliver to an isolated warehouse, it has to go online, and sometimes [out for] one hour delivery. So, you need to think very differently than what you used to in the past.” 

Quinn added that branding has become increasingly more important within Asia’s retail space, particularly when selling around important festivals such as Tet/Lunar New Year.  

“You can really see the evolution of branding by suppliers, and the branding really gives a trust and quality and consistency to the product that the consumers need,” he said. “So as a retailer, I don’t want [suppliers] to just sell me product. I want the story. I want you to offer me innovation. I want you to give me different packaging. I want exclusivity, and of course, I expect good service, good value.” 

Mu agreed that storytelling has become an integral part of the sales funnel.  

“Buying fruit now is a very different concept than ten years ago,” he said. “People want to know where it is from, how that is being produced, why and how it’s safe or not. So, the demand is becoming super diversified and super specified.”