After the success of its program in the United States, Pinnacle Fresh is looking to carry that momentum into Asia with a new premium brand built around one of the region’s biggest celebrations.
The brand, Citrus Moon, is timed to the Moon Festival, which falls in late September or early October each year and is second only to Lunar New Year in the Chinese calendar. Pinnacle’s Daniel Newport says the festival’s timing suits the company’s season perfectly.
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“Late September, early October is prime time for us,” Newport says. “That was the theme, the holiday and festivities we wanted to get behind, the Moon Festival.”
The brand is aimed squarely at the region’s gift-giving culture, carrying blood oranges, cara cara oranges and other varieties in premium packs.
“The Chinese and Southeast Asian buyers do a lot of gift-giving for premium fruits, especially around holidays,” he says. “We came up with some really good-looking, eye-catching gift packs that consumers could purchase to give as a gift, but also they’re the right size to be able to take home and consume, cook, eat with the family as well.”
So far the rollout has been deliberately small, with a handful of containers in Costco in China and Taiwan, and interest from Walmart China, but the look is bold and eye-catching.
“I was super pleased with how the packaging presented,” Newport says. “It really does look premium.”
Feedback so far has been good, and Newport is optimistic but measured about matching what Pinnacle has built in North America, where the business grew from a handful of containers to hundreds.
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“I don’t have ambition to get to 500 containers to Asia as we do to North America now, but who knows?” he says. “There’s a lot of Australian citrus going to Asia, so it’s a saturated market. But if we follow the same principles and strategies that we did for Dracula Citrus, I think we will have success.”
He is candid that this has been a tough season, with the hot weather leaving fruit less attractive than you’d ideally want, but he says an established brand is exactly what carries a grower through a down year marked by blemish.
“Ultimately, the flavour is what is most important,” Newport says. “No one cares about the blemishes on the outside of the orange anymore, as long as it tastes good on the inside. If they trust that as soon as they eat them, they’re going to be happy, then they’ll still buy.”
Blood oranges will need a more patient approach in Asia, he says, because they are not a traditional sweet citrus for the market, although newer varieties are shifting that.
“Southeast Asia and China do not traditionally buy a lot of blood oranges, because they’re not a sweet orange by nature,” Newport says. “The Arnold variety that we used to be known for is quite tart. But the newer varieties, the Ippolito, that’s less tart, much sweeter than an Arnold blood orange, so it’s more suited to the Asian market.”
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The plan is to educate buyers steadily, leaning on colour, novelty and health as much as sweetness.
“They’re not as sweet, but they’re healthier, and they’re very unique, and they’re exciting in your fruit bowl,” he says. “If we do it with a steady and slow approach and keep educating along the way, I think we will get the traction we want.”
For more information:
Daniel Newport
Pinnacle Fresh
+61 488 023 679
[email protected]
www.pinnaclefresh.com.au