Chinese market openings for Peruvian avocados, and more recently blueberries, have led the South American country's largest agri-exporter Camposol to put plans in motion for the opening of a Shanghai office. 

Camposol Trading CEO Jose Antonio Gomez-Bazan told www.freshfruitportal.com a law firm was currently undertaking the process of establishing an associated company constituted in China.

"We already have a critical mass between avocados and blueberries in a market that is taking a lot and growing rapidly, to justify investing in the opening of an office with Camposol’s own people in China," he said.

"We started working with China with our grape production in 2010 actually when we sent around 30 containers initially, and we have reached 100 containers [per year] over time, between different companies; mainly with a Peruvian company established there called IFH.

"But that was just with grapes, a campaign that lasts a few months. The season finishes and then there’s nothing more to do. Now that we have the possibility to establish ourselves with blueberries and avocados, the situation changes because we want to establish a brand position for the company in China."

He said the plan was to follow a similar model to what Camposol has done in the U.S. and Europe over the course of recent years, shifting to a predominantly direct distribution strategy with supermarkets.

"We want to position ourselves as an important supplier in online channels to sell through companies like Alibaba, Fruitday and all the online channels that have had success.

"We also want to participate in the larger market, which is wholesale."

Gomez-Bazan expected the contracting of all third party services for the office like accounting, human resources and legal affairs, would be done by around the time of industry event Fruit Logistica in Berlin, which takes place in February.

After that the plan is to start hiring staff, and he mentioned there was already a candidate in mind from Camposol to fill a role in the new office as an expatriate.

"I think before the blueberry campaign of 2017-18 we’ll already have a certain operative capacity, not to import, distribute and sell, but to start negotiating and transacting commercial matters. I anticipate that perhaps we’ll have operative capacity for distribution and sales for 2018," he said.

"With that we’ll have the presence of Camposol Trading in the three most important markets – an office in the U.S. which sells today around US$100 million, an office in Europe that today is selling around 80 million euros, and an office in China which I anticipate for the third year should be selling around US$30-40 million in sales."

He added the group also wanted to enter the Chinese market strongly with avocados to manage ripening programs with supermarkets, which requires a local operational presence.

www.freshfruitportal.com