Washington Pears Headed To China
March 6, 2013 Stemilt Growers of Wenatchee, WA, and Lantao of Shanghai, China, have teamed up to send d’Anjou pears from Washington State to China under the new protocol between the U.S. and China announced earlier this year.
Mike Taylor, vice president of sales and marketing for Stemilt, feels that the d’Anjou is a good multi-purpose pear that is well suited for the Chinese market. “Our experience is the Chinese consumer appreciates a sweet and juicy piece of fruit,” said Taylor.
“We expect there will be an education period to explain the difference between a typical Asian pear and our Western style pears. We feel very confident that Lantao, our partners in China, will do a great job in exposing Anjous in the market, and increase their sales and acceptance with the Chinese consumers.”
Lantao has marketing and distribution facilities in five different markets in China, including the so-called “big three” Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, and also in the internal secondary cities of Shenyang and Zhengzhou.
“We decided to focus our introduction of d’Anjou pears initially in the Shanghai market” said John Wang, President of Lantao. “Shanghainese are early adapters, and Shanghai was the first market to take black grape varieties from California.”
Bill Young, export account manager from Stemilt Growers, will join Mike Taylor on a tour of China in early March to see their fruit and the market reaction to it. “China is one of our important export markets and we hope to achieve similar success with our pears as we have had with our apples and cherries,” said Young.
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