THE urbanisation of China is the single biggest economic event the world has ever seen.
That statement made many sit up when Dragon Trend managing director and CEO Malcolm Keys said it as part of his presentation on exporting to China at the Produce Marketing Association Australia New Zealand’s Fresh Connections 2016 in Brisbane last week.
Mr Keys gave his insights into the Chinese market based on his work living in Hong Kong.
Dragon Trend is a commodities trading company specialising in sourcing fresh produce from Australia and New Zealand exclusively for the China Merchants Group.
The business has extensive arms in transportation, finance and real estate, allowing it to monitor and react to trends.
With the uplift in the Chinese economy in recent years, standards of living have increased and so to have citizens' tastes.
Part of that shift includes the change from families buying from wet markets to now visiting vast shopping centres and supermarkets.
You can't have that speed of urbanisation without a change in food and diet requirements.
- Malcolm Keys, CEO, Dragon Trend
"You can't have that speed of urbanisation without a change in food and diet requirements," Mr Keys said.
"Obviously if you bring people from rural areas to urban areas, you'll naturally be consuming more fresh produce."
He said Chinese consumers are readily connected to their smartphones and are far more advanced than many western countries in terms of mobile purchasing and using them to pay for products.
They are also information hungry, particularly on where their food is coming from.
"They want an experience with what they purchase," Mr Keys said.
"What they don't know about food, they want to know. With all these platforms, there is a high level of explanation to the consumer."
This may include details about where the product has come from on the packaging, or even a QR-code that brings up a video showing the farmer explaining how the farm produces that certain item.
He said wellbeing food purchases were an expanding market where residents are buying produce and products because it is good for them.
Mr Keys said subscription-based shopping was another exciting avenue for the fresh sector.
Although the opportunities exist, Mr Keys was reluctant to provide false hope to growers or processors who think the road is easy, regardless of newly signed export agreements.
"There is nothing about China that is free-trade," Mr Keys said.
"There is an access but it is so hard."
He said the body, China Import Quarantine (CIQ), basically acts to restrict the amount of foreign produce entering the country, the exact reverse of what every other country's export agencies are trying to do.
"Protocol accreditation takes a long, long time. The wheels grind slowly, especially in fresh," he said.
"Don't believe the hype that it's going to happen quickly, particularly in fresh produce."