California-based Mission Produce's joint venture with Lantao International in China has now taken on a fresh dimension with the incorporation of retailer Pagoda Stores, a new ripening center and a new brand Mr. Avocado. 

Mission Produce yesterday announced construction had been completed on the Mr. Avocado Ripe Center, which is strategically located near Yangtze River delta and the Port of Shanghai. 

The facility has four ripe rooms with a total capacity of 80 pallets of ripening space, and each room features two-tier racking systems.

The ripe rooms were constructed under the supervision of Mission’s engineering team, and are duplicates of the energy-efficient, high air-flow, temperature-controlled rooms the company uses in its eight ripening centers in the United States.

Mission Produce claim the center is the first avocado-specific ripening facility ever built in China. 

"We are very excited about the growth we’ve seen in China over the past several years," said Mission CEO Steve Barnard.

"By opening the Mr. Avocado Ripe Center in Shanghai, we will be able to provide ripe fruit to the market and accelerate that growth.

"Our partnership with Lantao and Pagoda to develop the Mr. Avocado brand for ripe fruit strengthens our leadership position in China."

While Mission Produce is a U.S. company, U.S. avocados do not yet have access to the Chinese market. Instead, the company is sourcing fruit from Mexico, Peru and Chile. 

Lantao CEO John Wang said more and more consumers were accepting and recognizing the fruit, and the time wasright for rolling out the Mr. Avocado brand for the ripe program.

"After years of promoting and developing avocados in the Chinese market, we have reached a turning point. Because there has been only hard fruit available, customers had to ripen on their own," Wang said.

"The U.S. market began to develop rapidly over 20 years ago when Mission started ripening fruit for retailers. We are following the same format now in China. 

"Through our Mr. Avocado partnership, we constructed the first ripening center in China, supplying professionally-crafted, ready-to-eat avocados to the Chinese market. I believe Mr. Avocado will be the leading avocado brand in China."

Pagoda is one of China’s largest fruit specialty stores, with over 1,800 shops and a presence across the country.

The retailer has expanded rapidly in recent years through the opening of new stores and acquisitions. Like the Mission and Lantao representatives, Pagoda chairman Yu Huiyong was also excited about the new partnership.

"We now have more than 1,800 stores all over China. We hope to continue to open 10,000 stores by 2020. By developing the fruit industry, we hope to better serve the world, in a sense," Yu said.

"Because we have so many fruits and vegetables in the category--but so far there are very few recognized brands--we feel that this is a very big opportunity for the next decade to come.

"I told my team three years ago that we need to pay special attention to avocados. If we lose avocados, we would lose half of the fruit category. So, I have been looking for the opportunity to form a partnership with the best worldwide avocado company."

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