What makes a good buyer? Xu Jun often tortured himself.
As a procurement source seeker in the product department of Hema Dingpai, he has participated in three consecutive sessions of the Expo, and his cognition is also constantly iterating. "But there is one thing I am very sure of, professional buyers are not the other party what I have I take."
In the three years of the Expo, he and his team worked together to keep an eye on a Thai source factory, practicing not simple "taking", turning an imported coconut green into coconut water, and then upgrading it to coconut milk.
In 2018, Xu Jun, led by the exhibitors of the first CIIE, encountered a coconut green factory in Thailand, which has the largest coconut grove in Bangkok, reaching more than 3,600 acres. The reason why Xu Jun locked in coconut green is because the market data in his hands shows that consumer demand for fresh coconut green is rising, and domestic coconut beverage companies have also begun to import a large number of tree species from Southeast Asia for production and processing. Xu Jun thought that overseas direct harvesting of coconut green makes the terminal retail price more competitive, which is undoubtedly a win-win business.
However, as a professional buyer, he has to consider far more problems than keywords such as "delicious" and "quality". He and his partners compared a large number of source factories in Southeast Asia and found that Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, etc. all have coconut green exports, but the output is different, and some factories will transfer goods from other sources when the export volume is large. After a detailed investigation and ensuring that the supplier in Bangkok would have a stable production capacity and no "collusion", the two sides finally finalized the cooperation. In 2018, Hema launched a direct thai coconut green of 9.9 yuan per piece, and by the time the second CIIE opened, Chinese consumers had eaten nearly 20 million.
Coconut green is selling hot, but Xu Jun is not satisfied. He feels that if the other party produces something, the Chinese buyer will buy what, which is just a proof of vision, but it may not be able to reflect professionalism.
According to the background data of fresh e-commerce, Xu Jun noted that coconut water sales have risen from 2016, and by 2019, the 6 international brands of coconut water sold by Hema have always ranked first in the beverage category. He considers that coconut green is a big fresh, consumption season is mainly in the summer. Canned coconut water, because of its natural, low calorie and rich in electrolytes, is suitable for more leisure and fitness scenes. "I thought at the time, since we have locked in a good source of goods in Thailand, why not ask the Thai side to lightly process coconut green and export coconut water to China?"
The buyer group did not delay for a moment, and grasped the research and development of "Hema brand" coconut water, but on the product standards, it is natural to let Chinese foodies have the final say. Xu Jun's team deeply studied consumer preferences, multi-dimensional debugging of coconut water's sweet acidity, PH value and other indicators, which completely subverted the Thai factory's understanding of Chinese buyers - the head of the Thai factory said at the time, "We can tilt more to China in terms of production capacity, but now this reverse customization means that we must prepare a special production and development team for the Chinese market." ”
The Thai factory has a specially established R&D team for China. (Courtesy photo)
Product reviews are conducted with thailand. (Courtesy photo)
However, the charm of the Chinese market makes Thai factories willing to follow the suggestions and standards of Chinese buyers, and also to see the ability of Chinese buyers to optimize the ability to mobilize supply chains around the world - the tetra Pak packaging production of coconut water is completed in Singapore, then shipped to Thailand, and the coconut water is filled in Thailand and then exported to China. In August 2019, the first "Hema brand" coconut water was launched as scheduled.
Xu Jun clearly remembers that soon after the coconut water was listed, the second session of the Expo was ushered in, and on the opening day, Zhu Lin, deputy prime minister and minister of commerce of Thailand, led a team to Shanghai Caojiadu Hema Fresh Club. When Zhu Lin learned that Thai coconut green and coconut water can also be used as ingredients for winter hot pot, he couldn't help but praise China's innovative way of eating. Since then, the sales of coconut water have increased steadily, and so far it has been the "sales crown" of similar beverages in Hema and Ma, and it has always been stable in the top ten positions in larger types of fruit and vegetable juice products.
The innovation of Chinese buyers has not stopped, and while developing coconut water, Xu Jun is already premeditated for the next product , coconut milk.
Coconut milk doesn't actually have milk. When the coconut is ripe, it is an old coconut, at which time the coconut meat is more fat and the coconut juice will be milky white. The so-called coconut milk is composed of two parts: coconut water and mature coconut meat that is ground and processed. In recent years, Chinese consumers have become more and more fond of coconut milk, not only because coconut milk can supplement plant protein, but also because of its rich coconut flavor, which is very suitable for winter gatherings, social networking and other scenes. However, some coconut milk products on the market are not natural enough, and their taste and aroma come from additives.
Where there are shortcomings, there are opportunities. At the end of last year, Xu Jun's team set another date for the listing of coconut milk, just in September 2020. This means that the time left for research and development and mass production is already very tight.
At the beginning of this year, the Thai origin factory sent a sample of coconut milk, and the procurement team evaluated and found that the sample failed to fully meet the Chinese requirements of no flavor, no preservatives and UHT high temperature sterilization requirements, and the Thai side needed to readjust the formula. But at this time, the initial outbreak of the epidemic in Thailand, Thai factories have been "home office".
Blind testing of coconut milk samples. (Courtesy photo)
The Chinese team can only adjust the order, design the product packaging first, adjust the communication process of product evaluation, and put forward the glycoicity requirements of 6 gradients in one feedback. By March this year, the Thai factory resumed work and production for the first time, and the second batch of samples experienced 4 times the cross-border logistics delivery time in normal times, and finally arrived in China.
But at this time, contradictions arose again. Using UHT to sterilize it can affect the taste, but Chinese buyers are not allowed to add flavors that enhance the taste. What to do? This time, the Thai factory, which has developed a separate process for the Chinese market, still showed great cooperation, dispatched 3 more professional R & D personnel, and finally reduced the impact of high temperature sterilization on the taste of the product through pure physics to increase the concentration of coconut milk. After countless races against time, in September this year, the first batch of Thai coconut milk that achieved mass production arrived at the Chinese port and was on the shelves two weeks later...
Thus, from the first encounter in 2018, this Thai fruit has achieved its triple jump.
In fact, since the first CIIE, such stories have been countless around Xu Jun, and his sourcing colleagues have purchased fresh New Zealand milk sources and Hokkaido cocoa beans at the Expo, and now they have been integrated into Chinese standards and transformed into net red ice cream and raw products.
In the past two days, Xu Jun has been wandering around the Expo while plotting his next popular product. He said that from the simple "buying, buying and buying" to taking the strengths of imports and injecting "Chinese ideas" into imported products, this is his understanding of the three sessions of the Expo and trade upgrading.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Wu Weiqun Text Editor: Li Ye
Source: Author: Li Ye