Mums crack China
TWO Gold Coast mums have landed a major deal with a Chinese distributor, which will see their healthfoods products sold on major eCommerce retail platform JD.com.
Mavella Superfoods owners Jaime Turner and Cheryl Stewart have signed a $105,000 contract with Jiangsu Sincere International Trading Ltd, and will shortly start work on another deal worth three times as much.
The pair started Mavella, which produces fruit and vegetable powders for children, in 2016, and took their first order for the Middle East early last year. The powders can be used in smoothies, cooking and baking.
The Veggie Boost powder contains the nutrition of raw vegetables including sweet potato, beetroot, spinach, broccoli, kale, carrot and pumpkin.
Ms Turner said the tie-up with Jiangsu Sincere came during the Food and Hotel China expo in Shanghai in November last year.
“We’re really excited because the distributor has a whole bunch of online distributors underneath them,” she said.
They include JD.com and tmall.com – opening up the products to potentially millions of consumers.
“This changes our business overnight, gaining a foothold in such a big market. Shanghai alone has 24 million people,” Ms Stewart, who is also coowner of Gold Coast company Morlife, said.
“China will be a big market because our product is the next step up from baby formula.
“Australian-made products are trusted.”
The first order has been packed and shipped to the Port of Brisbane where it will leave bound for China on Monday.
China is not the first market for Mavella in Asia.
The products are currently sold at FairPrice supermarkets in Singapore.
Ms Stewart said they have ideas for new products to roll out in the future.
“One of the platforms our distributor uses requires a minimum of 12 products to be able to open a flagship store on that platform,” she said.
“There is some thinking about doing a kids’ superfood vanilla blend.”
The pair are also looking at releasing larger packages of their products, which currently come in 100g and 300g serving sizes.
“We’re looking at trials of bars and bliss balls as well.”
In Australia, the products are currently stocked at health food shops in southeast Queensland and Foodlands stores in South Australia.