A slice of opportunity: Benin joins China’s fruit export market

The current go to of Benin’s President Talon to China didn’t hit many worldwide headlines. Nonetheless, it was significantly attention-grabbing for Africans as a result of in the course of the go to he secured a brand new settlement granting permission to export the West African nation’s recent pineapples to China. Alongside Kenyan, South African and Tanzanian avocados, Rwandan chilis, South African citrus fruits, and Tanzanian soybeans – Beninese pineapples are becoming a member of a quickly rising checklist of recent merchandise which might be lastly allowed to be exported to the Chinese language market.

Though this can be a enormous success on paper, there are various challenges to beat if Benin is to actually capitalise on this deal. Right here’s why.

First, historical past exhibits that negotiating this kind of deal doesn’t essentially lead to massive volumes of exports. Benin will not be the primary African nation to export pineapples to China. Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa have all exported small volumes of preserved pineapples to China for a number of years earlier than exports fizzled out totally.

Why? As a result of China already has a wealth of choices to select from. The Asia-Pacific area is the world’s largest producer of pineapples. In 2021 the Asia-Pacific produced 13 million metric tons of pineapples, which accounted for 41% of manufacturing globally. Inside Asia, the 2 prime pineapple producers, Indonesia and the Philippines are virtually China’s neighbours, which makes them an interesting import supply for China.

Africa, alternatively, produced lower than half the pineapple volumes versus Asia-Pacific in 2021 with simply 5.2 million metric tons of recent pineapples. Even China itself produces pineapples, though extremely seasonally and never sufficient to feed demand, therefore China’s reliance on imports.

This has contributed to China turning into the world’s second-largest pineapple importer behind the USA. China imports nearly all of its pineapples from Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. China imports primarily recent or dried pineapples (82%), preserved pineapples (15%) and a small quantity of pineapple juice (3%) – the latter primarily from Costa Rica. Competitors would possibly grow to be even fiercer within the Asian-Pacific area as Malaysia has additionally expressed its want to grow to be a significant exporter to China and started exporting its recent pineapples to China in 2017.

Second, the deal itself did have some limitations. Exporting recent merchandise might be nice for nation promotion and a few revenues, however African governments at the moment are additionally more and more targeted on agricultural processing, manufactured merchandise, and subsequently value-added exports.

Whereas Chinese language shoppers do have a choice for recent fruit, particularly in comparison with canned pineapples that are widespread in African international locations and Europe, China does produce some value-added pineapple merchandise, akin to pineapple syrups and powders, that are utilized in China’s notorious bubble teas and different drinks.

This could make it engaging for Chinese language or different traders in Benin to not simply deal with constructing capability to export a constant provide of recent pineapples to China but additionally spend money on the manufacturing of a lot of these pineapple merchandise for China, Europe in addition to different African international locations, which is according to the African Continental Free Commerce Space (AfCFTA). Diversifying Benin’s manufacturing capability and commerce companions on this means might be useful to Benin’s growth.

So what subsequent? How can Benin benefit from the present deal and plan for the longer term?

Benin does have one vital benefit – its pineapples are considerably cheaper than these within the Asia-Pacific to import and have been constantly so. From 2018 to 2021 the first worth of Benin’s pineapples per kilogram averaged US $1.4 in comparison with Indonesia’s US $14.7, Thailand’s US $2.4 and the Philippines’s US $4.7 all additionally fluctuated in worth. Benin can undoubtedly utilise this when attempting to seize the market.

Benin may also leverage the distinction within the pineapple selection. Benin primarily produces the Sugar Loaf selection and the Asia-Pacific Easy Cayenne, the Honey Malang and the Singapore Spanish. A bonus of the Sugar Loaf is that it has virtually no acidity compared to Asian pineapples, that are most well-liked by most shoppers for style and well being causes. The Sugar Loaf may also final for a number of days longer within the fridge than Asian varieties, which can also be an ideal promoting level.

One other issue that may weigh in Benin’s favour is that China’s commerce offers and import patterns within the Asia-Pacific area have been considerably risky of late. For instance, China banned pineapple imports from Taiwan in 2021, and Vietnamese fruit has additionally simply been blocked from coming into China. All these shifts can create home windows of alternative for Benin, albeit not essentially a long-term one.

Moreover, African leaders have been encouraging China to do extra to help Africa’s industrialization by financing packages of producing and value-addition, and it appears China is gearing as much as reply higher to those calls for. Thus, Benin ought to proceed to press for Chinese language funding within the processing of canned pineapples, pineapple juice and pineapple syrup and powder, whether or not then exported to China or to different locations.

Final however not least, to execute these methods correctly, Benin’s authorities and extra importantly pineapple exporters additionally have to have a robust understanding of the Chinese language market together with client preferences, efficient advertising and marketing methods and potential gross sales channels – one thing we help with by our Africa Reimagined programme.

The information that tremendous candy Beninois pineapple will quickly be in China is optimistic. However it’ll additionally actually take extra work from all sides to make it actually make a distinction to Benin’s pineapple farmers – who must be the final word beneficiary of all these modifications.

Article by Rosie Wigmore. Wigmore is the Challenge Supervisor of the World Commerce staff at Growth Reimagined. She focuses on researching developments within the Africa-China commerce relationship and supporting high-end African manufacturers with coming into the Chinese language market.