The Asia Fruit Logistica, held September 6-8 in Hong Kong, brought companies from around the world to showcase their products and latest developments to Asian clients. 

Blue Whale, a French leader in apple production, promoted what is expected to be a very successful 2023-2024 season for French apples. 

Marc Peyres, director of global sales at Blue Whale spoke exclusively with FreshFruitPortal.com from the fair, where the company has returned after four years. 

“This year in France we are back to a very good crop and we are very happy to see that demand is going to be very good. Our latest variety, Candine, has been very successful in the last three years and we see a big interest from our Asian customers,” says Peyres. 

The last two seasons, especially last year, were a challenge for growers across Europe due to inflationary costs and weather conditions causing a low crop. Thus, Blue Whale is excited to share with customers that this year they are back to full potential. 

“For this year we are projecting a little over one million cartons for export to Asia. We already started with the process six weeks ago and we are seeing much more volumes than usual,” indicates Peyres. 

He adds, “This is the best launch of a season we have done in the last 13 years. We have good quality fruit, great quantities, and market prices are much better.”

Market price

Peyres notes that prices this year are higher on the Asian market. 

“I think all around the world, the fruit business realizes that they have to increase their prices because inflationary prices have hit everybody so the normal market price today can not be the same as two years ago,” he says. 

Blue Whale has exported apples to Asia for more than 30 years, and even though some countries like Indonesia still don’t allow access of the fruits, other markets including Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, and Vietnam have been increasing their consumption. 

Blue Whale at Asia Fruit Logistica 2023

Staying close to customers

Last year, Blue Whale opened its own office in Singapore to follow their commitment to be closer to their clients. 

Peyres explains that this “Allows us to offer quality support at points of sale where  we arrange sampling sessions to get a better feel for our consumer profile.”

The Asian market today has a lot more open competition than 10 years ago, so being close to its customers is helping Blue Whale understand demand. Peyres highlights that it also helps the customers know that they can have people working closely with them to fulfill their needs. 

“We continue to organize the marketing of our growers in France, with continuous growth, and all of our markets to which we export, 80 countries worldwide, are very important for us, especially during a good season like this one we focus on moving the fruit in a good condition,” states Peyres.