Chinese consumers drive up sales of Australian produce

Sales of fresh Australian produce boomed during the Chinese Lunar New Year period, with tech-savvy Chinese buyers using online retailers to plug the gap left by supermarket closures over the busy holiday period.

Online shopping giant JD.com Inc reported a sharp increase in sales of online goods over the weeklong holiday at the end of January and the start of February, with the sale of imported goods such as Australian beef, cherries and kiwifruit increasing by up to fourteenfold.

JD told Australia’s News Corp that, in the long term, it expects “a continued boom in imported food sales as Chinese palates become more sophisticated, and customers become increasingly aware”.

JD’s competitor Alibaba said Chinese consumers often bought foreign goods online during the Lunar New Year period as local businesses often closed so that employees could spend time with their families.

“Since many supermar- kets in China are closed during the holidays, a lot of confectionery products and fresh produce through our online supermarket proved popular, including crackers, nuts, candies, cherries, kiwifruit, apples, fresh vegetables and dumplings,” an Alibaba spokesperson said.

Ministry of Agriculture statistics showed that while the total value of agricultural imports into China fell in 2016, sales of livestock and other goods such as wheat — often from Australia — bucked the trend.

Imports of wheat grew 13.5 percent, while rice and vegetables grew by 5.5 and 2 percent, respectively, and livestock imports jumped by almost 15 percent to be worth more than $23 billion.

Pork imports rose 110 percent, beef imports rose by 22.4 percent and milk powder grew by 15.2 percent.