UK company Richard Hochfeld has been trading for 85 years, and in 2020 the international branch of the company, which supplies fruit from their farms in South America to the Chinese market, entered a joint venture with a Chinese fruit packing company Zhuang’an and started the Hi Fruit brand. They have a state of art the fruit packing facility in Jiaxing.
In 2017 they sent just five containers to China, that has now increased to 600 a year.
Richard Hochfeld have installed a packing line from Marco to supply fruit in heat-sealed punnets to the high-end retailers under the Hi Fruit and retailer’s own brands.
Fruit supplied into China includes citrus, grapes, stone fruit, cherries and blueberries.
Vincent Liu, Karen Cleave and Martin O'Sullivan at Asia Fruit Logistica 2022 in Thailand.
“The lockdowns caused by the pandemic made things very challenging for us,” said Martin O’Sullivan, group director of business development. “The packing line was supposed to be installed by Marco engineers, but instead had to be done locally via zoom and teams calls, this is a testament to the team and the tech that we have available these days.”
“The Chinese side of the business has continued to grow despite the challenges. The rolling lockdowns had a dramatic impact in China, wholesale markets were closed which had a knock-on effect into retail. Forecast demand was very different to reality, but luckily fruit and vegetables are a significant part of people’s diets, this was especially so during the early covid months.”
The difficulties in shipping have been well documented and Martin said, with one programme, only 50% of total shipments arrived in the space of a week. “It was very challenging time”.
In addition to fruit from their farms in South America Richard Hochfeld also supply fruit from South Africa and Europe, there have even been British cherries and fruit from NZ.
The fruit supplied is of UK retail standard, and goes mainly to high-end retailers, while current focus is direct to retail.
There are not many parts of the world which have been unaffected by extreme or unseasonal weather lately, and Chile has experienced some rain and hail in the growing regions just at the start of the export season. Martin is confident however that although there may be a slight gap in supply, their programs are currently on track.
“We see China as an important market and will increase supply there, it is certainly part of our future strategy. Chinese consumers are becoming more and more discerning and moving away from loose product towards packed product. We will continue to grow our business and use resources here. I have a strong belief that having strong partners in China is vital to success.”
For more information:
Martin O’Sullivan
Richard Hochfeld
Tel: +44 1732 885566
Email: martin.osullivan@richardhochfeld.co.uk
richardhochfeldgroup.com