Trading up

face-to-face events, heavily valuing these as trust-building activities.

Expos shine spotlight

Large-scale trade shows took a significant hit over Covid, but as Asia Fruit Logistica (AFL) proved back in November, food and beverage trade shows are back.

ATGA CEO Jeff Scott attended AFL in Thailand as a guest of Hort Innovation, while ATGA team member Karen Connolly spruiked new varieties at FOODEX in Japan in March alongside the Victorian Government’s Global Victoria site.

Jeff said these trade shows were an integral part of maintaining Australia’s reputation as an exporter of high quality fresh fruit and timing is paramount in promoting the season.

Mission to strengthen relationships

Pre-season and in-season trade tours also complement trade show attendance in creating opportunities for exporters in attendance and the industry at large.

Jeff attended a week-long tour of Vietnam in March with Austrade, strengthening relationships in not only key cities but smaller regional centres as well.

“We always undertake trade tours like this, in key markets, just prior to commencing our export harvest season. The goal is to inform everybody about what to expect and to generate excitement and interest in Australian grapes,” Jeff said. “Despite what’s happened over the past few years, Asian countries still want to have face-to-face meetings. They want to develop personal relationships and know who they are trading with.

“These trade missions are very beneficial in achieving those strong relationship and network-building activities.”

In addition to pre-season trade tours, Hort Innovation conducted an outbound mission to India in August last year to support table grape exporters to expand their potential in currently underutilised international markets.

A report on the outbound mission recently been released by Hort Innovation examines the opportunities and challenges for exporting to the developing market.

Key highlights included one-to-one meetings with foreign industry executives, pre-screening business matching and networking with importers, distributors, wholesalers and retail category buyers from key supermarket chains in India. India’s rising awareness regarding the health benefits of consuming fruits has led to a boost in table grape consumption, positively impacting demand and growth of the table grape market.

The table grape market in India is projected to witness a compound annual growth rate of 7.67 per cent, and due to its lack of cold chain infrastructure, imports of table grapes are expected to rise. India is also experiencing ongoing urbanisation and rising middle-class, with a strong focus on digital trade, so technologically strong export markets will be favoured as India’s modern trade pie gets bigger.

Virtual reality

While in-person presence provides unique opportunities, Jeff said that virtual campaign launches and presentations in other key focus markets leverage the ability to connect retailers without favouring one over another.

“This season I have completed virtual presentations to Indonesia, Thailand, China, Malaysia and the Philippines,” Jeff said. “These trade launches are very beneficial as there is a collective audience of the major importers and retailers in attendance.

“The presentation includes information on the current season, new varieties, harvest times and information on upcoming promotional activities in those countries.

Attendees are also interested in the growing and export processes and innovation within our industry.”

Benefits and burdens

A standout in most countries has been enquiries about new varieties and enhancements to industry. Asian markets, in particular, are keen to understand how the industry is embracing technology to enhance growing practices and postharvest storage, and retailers are always excited to learn about the promotional activities we’re planning in their retail stores in market.

A key takeaway from these trade tours is that opportunities exist for Australian exporters to “spread our footprint to some of the second and third tier cities in most countries”, Jeff said.

Jeff said while Australian grapes are still perceived as being “very clean, fresh and safe”, other industries are improving their quality every year, in particular Peru and Chile.

Australia has been set a task to only send premium quality fruit that the Asian markets expect.

“The challenge for Australian growers is to deliver great quality and mature fruit,” Jeff said. “If we continue to do this then the returns will be there for the growers. However, if we deliver immature fruit and not what we have promised then a country such as Peru will quickly take our market share.

“There may be short-term gains but there will be long term pain. Importers will look at alternative supply going forward and the price-return to our growers will drop. It is imperative to maintain that quality niche that we have delivered in previous years.”

See following page for some campaign highlights in key markets. v