In the framework of Chile Week China 2018, Jorge O'Ryan, the director of ProChile, signed a cooperation agreement with Suning, the second largest offline and online Chinese supermarket chain, to increase the presence of Chilean companies and the promotion of Chilean products in China.
Suning is the second largest private group in China, with an annual turnover of more than US $ 80.8 billion. Its eCommerce platform is among the three most important B2C sales channels in the market. It has more than 1,600 physical stores in over 700 cities, and purchases around 15 billion euro a year in products from all over the world.
"The goal of the agreement signed between ProChile and Suning is to strengthen our presence as a country, consolidating the access for Chilean products in offline and online stores," O'Ryan said.
He added that ProChile's had committed to provide Suning with information about suppliers of goods and services and generate contact between Chilean exporters and the Chinese company, so that this platform can become an authorized seller of Chilean products in China.
Through the agreement, Chile and Suning will work together to promote the purchase of Chilean products. This cooperation is expected to translate into purchases for 150 million euro (US $ 171 million) in the next three years.
In addition, the parties committed to generate joint promotional actions in different areas of the eCommerce channel, such as culture, sports, investment, information technology, and logistics.
"Between January and August of this year our exports to China totaled US $1.779 billion, surpassing the US $1.596 billion achieved throughout all of 2017; therefore our goal this year is to end 2018 with food exports of US $2.5 billions. The cooperation agreements that we have signed these days will be key to achieve this," O'Ryan stated.
The agreement was signed within the framework of the first Global Purchasing & Supply Summit of Suning 2018, where ASOEX, which was represented by Charif Christina Carvajal, had an outstanding participation.
Carvajal was part of a panel that analyzed the opportunities and challenges of Chilean fruits. "Chile is recognized for its fruit's quality and innocuousness, as this invitation to this Summit and the important interest in our products has shown," said Carvajal.
Other agreements
In addition, three other cooperation agreements were signed during Chile Week in Shanghai. One of them was between the Undersecretariat of Tourism and Ctrip, the largest tour operator in China and the second biggest one in the world; another between Chile with China Eastern, aimed at promoting Chile's fruits, vegetables, and seafood among the company's customers, especially in the context of the new direct route between Santiago and Ningbo, where fresh products will arrive in 3 or 4 days, instead of 11.
The third agreement was signed by ProChile and Win - Chain, the sourcing platform of Alibaba. This agreement seeks to improve the way that fresh Chilean products arrive and are marketed in the group 's supermarkets, such as Tmall, Rt mart, Auchan China, Lianhua, and Hema, and established a pilot plan that includes the purchase of US $50 million in Chilean fresh fruit, US $18 million in Chilean meat, and US $46 million in Chilean seafood.
Source: SimFRUIT according to ProChile
