The Association of Chilean Fruit Exporters, A.G. (ASOEX), the Chilean Blueberry Committee and the Chilean Cherry Committee, together with ProChile and Chile's embassy in China, have started an intense promotional campaign in the Chinese market.

"The goal of this initiative is to develop new markets within this Asian nation, which is so important for Chilean fruit. The promotional campaign focuses on new cities with a good purchasing power and high levels of consumption of fresh produce. Our first visit will be to Chengdu, an area with over 14 million inhabitants," explained Ronald Bown, president of ASOEX.

As for the campaign's initiatives, Bown added "we will ride in vehicles decorated with photos of our fruit and the sectoral brands, Blueberries from Chile and Cherries from Chile. Additionally, the promoters will hand out brochures at the city's main markets with information about our blueberries and cherries regarding production, quality and safety aspects, as well as availability."

Furthermore, the program also includes the organisation of workshops targeted at distributors in the various markets that will be visited. "The interest we have observed from Chinese distributors to participate in these initiatives keeps growing. The workshops used to be attended by 8 to 10 traders, while nowadays we get more than 25 per event," stated Christian Carvajal, ASOEX marketing manager for Europe-Asia.

The activities being organised in each market are part of the partnership agreement recently signed between CAWA (Chinese National Agricultural Wholesale Market Association) and ASOEX. More than 200 wholesaler markets are represented by CAWA, which accounts for 60% of the total value of the sector's sales. Its associates distribute a wide range of agricultural (and other) products.

For his part, Nicolás Serrano, representative of ProChile in Guangzhou, pointed out that "through the workshops we can boost the sub-brands, Blueberries from Chile and Cherries from Chile in a few regional cities of China, such as Chengdu, which is the capital of the province of Sichuan, in south west China. That city has an approximate population of 14 million inhabitants in an area of 12,300 square kilometres and it is one of the most important economic, transport and communication centres in western China."

Fresh Plaza