China is the next big destination for many categories of fresh fruit, and Mexican avocados are no exception.

The Mexican Association of Avocado Producers and Packers (Apeam) has reported a four-fold increase year-on-year. This was collected from e-commerce platform Tmall.

The association told FreshFruitPortal.com that China has been a good market for Mexico. The fruit was been performing especially well on e-commerce campaigns.

China is a market with a lot of potential for Mexican avocados despite the distance (exports take 20 to 30 days to arrive via boat), Apeam said.

“We have learned that, regarding the avocado, Mexico is the most mentioned origin on social media and in the press," Apeam explained. "The Chinese population is most interested in health benefits and beauty, they mention avocados as something nutritious and ideal for babies that are learning how to eat.” 

However, there is still a lot of misunderstanding over how to consume avocados.

“Ways to prepare and choose them are still unknown in China. In the everyday life of a Chinese consumer the avocado is still something strange and exotic. Often they don’t know how to consume it,” it added.

Representatives went on to say: “Education to develop the consumption and the culture of the avocado is important. We've seen that people eat them for breakfast and lunch or as a smoothie before or after exercise.” 

Concerning the fruit’s packaging, Apeam commented: “The Chinese have paid attention to multi-pack, eye-catching packaging with fruit that is ripe and ready to eat”.

Tmall's role in Mexican avocado sales in China

Héctor Zhang, import manager in the Fresh Food Unit of Tmall - part of the Alibaba Group - informed Apeam that a few days ago a major promotional campaign "achieved its objective of selling 500,000 units of Mexican avocados".

"The Mexican avocado occupies second place in terms of volume of fruit sold on Tmall and it broke the record for avocado sales," he said.

Around 100,000 Mexican avocados were sold online in just two hours as part of the promotion.

This points to the potential of the Chinese market for this category. It has also mobilized interest in creating a Chinese new year promotional campaign.

Avocado exports to U.S. on track

Speaking on other markets, Apeam commented that the U.S. market "continues to be a market on the rise".

It also expects to continue meeting projected exports. 

Detailing the season thus far, Apeam said: “The season has developed without any setbacks. Since the beginning of the season, weeks 27 to 40, we have registered 297,547 metric tons (MT) exported. That's an average of 21,790MT per week.”