World markets go nuts for Nelson-made spread
They like their peanuts, but peanut butter is a puzzling Western delicacy to the Chinese, according to an exporter who has just struck a deal there.
Pic’s Really Good Peanut Butter has been growing fast since its inception 10 years ago, when founder Pic Picot began selling it for a bit of extra income at the Nelson market.
Having found its way into mainstream supermarkets in New Zealand and Australia, Pic’s is now breaking into the United Kingdom, United States and Chinese markets.
Speaking from Ireland, Picot said he was about to meet UK supermarket giant Tesco’s which has just begun stocking his product.
Two weeks earlier he was in China signing a deal with Shenzhen Qianhai Ebaytown, a wholesaler which will move Pic’s from being online-only sales in China to placing it on supermarket and department store shelves.
The signing of the Pic’s deal followed the recent ‘‘One Belt, One Road’’ summit in Beijing which aims to make it easier for New Zealand companies to do business in China.
Ebaytown vice-president Daniel Wang said his company intended to promote Pic’s as a premium product, ‘‘and promote New Zealand to the Chinese market, with the aim of bringing more tourists and investors to both New Zealand and the Nelson region’’.
The spread has aroused curiosity in China, with some 3000 jars snapped up during a recent online Wechat promotion.
‘‘They’re very keen to eat New Zealand products,’’ Picot said.
But the Chinese are still catching on to the concept of peanuts as a spread.
‘‘For the time being we’re seeing Australia as our most immediate growth opportunity. But China and the UK, and the US … could suddenly turn around and any of them could start going. ‘Look, we want two containers a week.’
‘‘In the meantime we can handle it and we do advise that we’re limited by our peanut supply at the moment.’’
In the US, Pic’s was aimed at the premium end of the market.
‘‘We have no aspirations to be the best-selling peanut butter in the world, but we would like to be the best-loved.’’
It’s hoped that Ebaytown will pick up other healthy Nelson products, and some of Pic’s other products, which include a cold pressed peanut oil and almond butter.