Avocado export supply group AVOCO welcomes last week's announcement that New Zealand market access to China has been granted for the 2018-19 export season.
The company exports New Zealand avocados to various Asian markets under its AVANZA brand and it has been preparing for access to China for some time. Preliminary planning has included the development of a market-specific brand name designed to be the exemplar brand from New Zealand for China.
Anticipating access would be granted for 2018-19, last month the AVANZA market management team drafted an initial market plan for China involving target volumes, size profile and supply phasing. China, like India and South Korea, will be developed with the view to it becoming a market for premium quality, larger-size fruit.
A pre-season market visit is scheduled for April to finalise importer-distributor arrangements and identify optimum sales channels to be pursued, looking at a mix of both "off-line" retail store format sales and "on-line" opportunities. New Zealand's scale and seasonality relative to the South American supply nations will be a key consideration in customer selection.
New Zealand will compete for shelf space in China with fruit from Mexico, Peru and Chile — the only other countries currently benefiting from market access.