To celebrate the new Peruvian blueberry season, Chinese importer Shanghai Junli and American grower and marketer North Bay Produce Produce held a joint season launch ceremony at Shanghai's Huizhan Market on August 6. During the event, the first container of Peruvian blueberries of the new season under the North Bay Produce brand was officially inaugurated.

The collaboration between Junli and North Bay Produce began last season. This year, the two sides will further deepen their cooperation, not only increasing Peru's blueberry trade volume, but also jointly developing business in China for other fruit categories.

“We started our cooperation last year. Communication between the teams has been fluid and the overall product quality is stable and good.

Therefore, both parties are excited to continue together this year to grow the business,” said Andy, international procurement manager at Junli.

Ezequiel Giménez, purchasing director for Latin America at North Bay Produce, revealed that the company seeks to strengthen its presence in the China market.

“As part of our strategy, we aim to strengthen our presence in the wholesale channel with the help of our business partner, Junli in Shanghai and other new partners in several important markets in China, while developing retail and e-commerce channels,” he said. .

North Bay Produce's first shipment of Peruvian blueberries to China this season consisted primarily of the Emerald variety.

“This variety performs well in terms of flowering, firmness and flavor, and is moderately priced, suitable for most consumers,” Andy said.

Giménez said that due to adverse factors such as heavy rains that affected northern China's production regions, the new season's domestically produced blueberries currently on the market lack quality, presenting more market opportunities for Peruvian blueberries.

As the season progresses, Junli and North Bay Produce plan to supply more premium blueberry varieties to the Chinese market. Giménez is particularly optimistic about the performance of the Sekoya Beauty and Sekoya Pop varieties.

“This year, part of our new strategy is to promote our new Reserva brand, for our Sekoya varieties. We have several production areas in Peru (north and center) which allows us a stable supply for China from the beginning to the end of the Peruvian season. Our strategy for Asia and China is to supply blueberries throughout the year from different regions of the world,” said Giménez.