By China Fruit Portal editor Yawen Chen

"Wow, almost all of China's blueberry growers have come here."

At the China International Blueberry Congress held earlier this month in Qingdao, I overheard an attendee make this comment with a sense of astonishment. Staff from the Joyvio Group told me this year's quota for participants was 700, yet more than 800 delegates showed up at the door. The organizing committee, unfortunately, had to turn away some unexpected guests because of China's strict control over conference sizes.

Admittedly, those who came were not just blueberry growers from all over the country, but also those aspiring to break into this field. After all, in comparison with the relatively more developed blueberry industries in the U.S. and Chile, the blueberry business is still a blossoming one in China. As the current leading player in the Chinese blueberry market and one of the conference co-organizers, how does Joyvio, a company of the Legend Holdings whose original strengths lie in the IT industry, approach blueberries and the produce industry in general? What is its competitive strategy? Can the rapid rise of Joyvio's blueberry sector reveal insights for other industry players?

Apparently, financial restraint was never really a problem for Joyvio. When I interviewed Legend Holdings founder Liu Chuangzhi back in December 2013, he made it clear the powerful parent company sets no cap on its investment volume into its agricultural arm – only the sky's the limit. With Liu's strong backing, Joyvio under President Chen Shaopeng’s leadership swiftly achieved expansive growth through the acquisition of key industry players in the Chinese blueberry market- such as Wallen Agriculture Co. - and more than 15,000 acres of blueberry planting areas.

But Joyvio is not the only one with strong financial backing. Based on my observations, many participants at the conference have accumulated a considerable amount of capital over the years and have decided to invest heavily in agriculture, in light of the gradual decline of other industries in China, such as the automotive and steel sectors. Undoubtedly, the blueberry industry has great potential, but just where exactly should investors focus their money and energy?

If you look at the Joyvio Group, it is determined to stand on the shoulders of giants. This can be seen through its emphasis on recruiting internationally and locally competitive talent into its tech and management team. Having such an experienced team - including the likes of Chilean experts Claudio Marchant and Jose Ignacio Lira, Chinese blueberry veteran Jiang Huitie and Dr. Jin Xixuan who has won a raft of awards in U.S. agricultural academia - served as a quick introductory crash course for the incoming Joyvio Group in the high-end produce industry field.

Although challenges still abound for Joyvio in terms of the research and introduction of new varieties, as well as the establishment of effective cold chains, its strategic approach nevertheless gave it a defined edge against other domestic competitors in the market.

Similar to its "obsession" with cutting-edge planting technologies, Joyvio also has gone the extra mile in branding and self-positioning in the market. First of all, whether it be in China or the world in general, the level of governmental support is crucial to the development of agriculture. Such was the case for Joyvio, whose concepts of agricultural branding and agricultural modernization received generous support from the Qingdao Municipal Government. The Qingdao city government's commitment to this International Blueberry Congress can be seen in its selection of opening ceremony keynote speaker – Qingdao Mayor Zhang Xinqi.

In his opening remarks, Zhang highlighted the ways in which Qingdao's blueberry industry, represented by the recent development in Huangdao District, has become a new attractive aspect of Qingdao's overall appeal as a fast-growing yet scenically beautiful coastal city. Even some of Joyvio's local partners spoke of their relatively easy access to trust and support from the local government, as a result of Joyvio's halo effect.

Joyvio's development path has been marked by a strong awareness of achieving win-win outcomes. It recognizes squarely that only when the overall reputation of blueberry products available catches up will China's still very limited blueberry market, will industry members be able to grow together. In other words, there is a symbiotic relationship among various industry players.

In the past two years, Joyvio has joined forces with the Qingdao government in hosting the blueberry congress, which definitely creates  a much more consolidated and interactive platform for the blueberry industry; growers want to know how they can grow better tasting fruit, distributors want to ensure no price war is ever waged maliciously, and the various players on the supply chain have long called for such a platform for resource sharing.

The establishment of the Chinese Blueberry Industry Association, spearheaded by Joyvio, might sound new to many domestic players, yet against the larger backdrop of international competition it is quite a common practice for growers and traders of a particular produce item to establish an organization to represent the interests of industry players. According to Jin, the purpose of this association is to transmit and communicate the voices of blueberry growers to Chinese authorities. Jin believes that the presence of such an industry-wide association is a blessing for the growers.

Moreover, what intrigues me about Joyvio is its collaboration with the government, banks and insurance companies in the creation of its blueberry chain mechanism. During this year's conference, the company signed official agreements with other financial institutions. Joyvio vice President Zeng Qiang explained to me that this mechanism aims to help those who aspire to play a part in the blueberry market yet lack the sufficient financial resources and institutional support to do so.

When growers sign with this blueberry chain, relevant financial institutions will provide seed funding, and the company will provide necessary technologies. After harvest, production standards are met, the company will buy back these blueberries so the growers need not worry about distribution channels later on.

Joyvio's open discouragement of small family farming and its voiced support for high-tech agriculture have drawn to itself massive media attention. Hence, Joyvio has successfully created opportunities for itself in establishing market demand and consumer confidence.

How so, you might ask? In China, where food security becomes an important topic of heated public debates, views such as "we must commit ourselves to product quality" and "we must refrain from primitive production" have won themselves a chance to break through the stereotype of domestic Chinese products as unsafe and unhealthy.

On that note, aside from concerning topics such as pesticide residue and product traceability, Chen said frankly that soil conditions in China are generally speaking very poor and suffer from significant soil hardening. The percentage of organic content in the Chinese oil stays around 0.2% to 0.3%, although four to five years of soil improvement could potentially bring that number up to 3%, which is still miles away from Chile’s 10%.

"If I must say, China has no good soil for planting," he says. Yet in practice, Chen and the Joyvio Group will still commit themselves to land plowing with the purpose of land environment improvement and increased use of organic fertilizers.

"No other industry has such a long cycle for expected investment return," he adds.

Although met with hurdles, Joyvio’s commitment to blueberry appear to be enduring and confident. After all, not every player in the Chinese blueberry industry is ready to 'cast a long line in order to catch the big fish'.

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