PiqaBoo Pears Make their China Debut on Mr. Fresh

Tmall recently announced that New Zealand’s new pear variety PiqaBoo had begun to be offered on Tmall’s online fresh shopping platform Mr. Fresh, marking PiqaBoo’s entry into the China market.

PiqaBoo was developed through crossbreeding premium European, Asian, and Chinese pear varieties by Prevar, a New Zealand company established to “globally commercialize the new apple and pear cultivars bred in New Zealand.” PiqaBoo pears possess a dark red color, a short body, and have a certain crispiness, sweetness, and juiciness which cater particularly well to the tastes of the Chinese consumer. It was reported that PiqaBoo pears have a very short harvesting season, from late-February to early-March, and are only just in the initial stages of their commercialized production. This limited supply means that these pears are only available for export to a handful of countries. 

PiqaBoo was exported to China by Freshmax, with Mr.Fresh as its Chinese partner. Priced at 899 yuan per package of 32 pears, high-end consumers are PiqaBoo’s main sales target. The first batch of PiqaBoo were made available only to the VIP members of the APASS group, a group of wealthy consumers who are characterized by having a high credit rating and spending large sums of money on Tmall or Taobao. According to statistics from Tmall, this group of consumers spends at least 30 billion yuan every year on its online platform.

Freshmax expressed high confidence as to PiqaBoo’s prospects in China, despite the limited release and tentative marketing plan of its first year in China. Mr. Fresh also confirmed that only two or three containers of PiqaBoo pears had been imported in China this year.

The pear’s debut was also a key component of the “All Purity in One” campaign held by Mr. Fresh to promote fresh products from New Zealand in China. In addition to PiqaBoo pears, another highlight of the campaign was Mr. Fresh cooperating with Mr Apple, a giant in New Zealand’s apple industry, to launch the ‘NZ Queen’ apple in early April. These apples are available on Mr. Fresh and have been air-freighted directly from New Zealand.

To further enhance the shopping experience for premium users, Mr. Fresh offers a nine-piece gift set featuring the highest-quality apples picked from the first harvests of the season.Additionally, as a part of the campaign, Kevin, a graduate from Le Cordon Bleu and the former Executive Chef of Hilton Hotel, joined in a live broadcast streamed on Tmall aimed at boosting sales of the apple, which was themed “The Gift of Love.” 
 

Image sources: Mr. Fresh