Press release

Six innovative designs inspired by Chinese culture were awarded at the closing of the “Design in China, made in Chile” contest.

On November 19, the diCmiC contest: Design in China, Made in Chile, concluded with an Award Ceremony in Shanghai, China. CMPC’s Biopackaging business organized this unprecedented initiative in collaboration with the Shanghai International Institute of Design & Innovation of Tongji University, and Copefrut, one of Chile’s leading cherry producers. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile sponsored the contest through its institution, ProChile.

China is the world’s primary consumer of cherries, with more than 2 million tons annually and receiving more than 90% of Chilean exports of this fruit. Thus, China was the perfect setting for the diCmiC contest. This initiative invited Chinese students and professionals to develop new packaging solutions for cherries using corrugated cardboard or paperboard.

Felipe Morales, Innovation Manager at CMPC Biopackaging Corrugated business, explained that the objective was to “create functional and attractive packaging that reflects a deep understanding of the Chinese market.” The company collaborated with the local ecosystem to achieve this, taking advantage of its invaluable knowledge of consumer customs, preferences, and needs. This way, it seeks to connect more authentically with consumers and generate stronger value propositions.

“Packaging design is not only a crucial means to improve the market image of Chilean cherries, but also an important platform to increase Chinese consumers’ understanding of Chilean products,” said Alberto Cañas, Trade Commissioner of ProChile in Shanghai. For this reason, he stated that ProChile strongly supports this type of initiative, which is relevant to promoting high-quality Chilean products and strengthening the connection between consumers in both countries.

With a large participation of students from 15 Chinese universities, the diCmiC contest received 112 applications, made up of 89 teams and 104 participants. The finalists presented their innovative designs, categorized in Cardboard and Corrugated Cardboard, before a jury composed of representatives from Copefrut China, ProChile, Tongji University, Tongji-MIT City Science Lab, CMPC Asia, and CMPC Biopackaging.

In the words of Jarmo Suominen, Associate Director of the Tongji Sino-Finnish Center and the Tongji-MIT City Science Lab, “This competition embodies the idea of ​​“Design in China, Made in Chile”, showing how Chinese design can place Chilean products in the right context. These designs bridge the two cultures by answering essential marketing questions and adopting cultural nuances, fostering economic and creative collaboration.”

Copefrut considers the event a valuable opportunity to collaborate and innovate, “... this event represented an invaluable opportunity to share learnings, explore synergies and generate joint knowledge that strengthens our companies and all participants. “This type of experience reinforces our conviction that collaboration and innovation are key to creating a positive and sustainable impact on our industries and global communities,” said Carolina Prado, Copefrut’s Assistant Innovation Manager. In addition, the contest allows them to understand consumers in China better. “This contest helps us to better understand consumers of cherries in China, especially the new generations and potential consumers of the next 5-10 years, bringing us closer to what they expect to receive from us regarding formats for the final consumer,” said Sebastián García, Copefrut’s Category Manager.

Awards

The highest award was to Yifei Chen, Jiayi Luo, Zixuan Wang, and Qian Xing, a team of students from the Communication University of China, authors of the overall winning design of the contest, as well as being also winners of the Gold Award in the Corrugated Category. Their design consists of a box that can be used as a game board using the same cherries, becoming an entertaining, innovative, and sustainable gift, considering elements of Chinese culture.

As part of their prizes, a representative of the winning team will be invited on a trip to Chile, where they will learn about part of the cherry production and packaging processes. In addition, six winners were selected in total from Hubei University and Shanghai University of Engineering Science.

Results and next steps

This initiative allowed CMPC to deepen ties with its operations and strengthen the relationship with a critical destination for its clients’ exports. Regarding this, Fernando Deng, Head of Innovation and Procurement at CMPC Asia, mentioned that “the success of this competition showed the great potential of the innovation network we have been building in Asia with various relevant stakeholders. This marks a good start for future and deeper cooperation with our local innovation partners.”

As a result of this unprecedented initiative, CMPC Biopackaging will be inspired by the winning designs to manufacture new packaging for cherries exported from Chile to China.