On January 16th, the Guangzhou leg of the "Chilean Cherry Ice & Snow Festival," jointly organized by the Commercial Office of the Consulate General of Chile in Guangzhou, the Chilean Fruit Exporters Association, Yonghui Superstores, Garces Fruit, and Yuqian Group, was officially launched at the Yonghui Superstore located in Huadu's Rongchuang Mao. Attendees included Commercial Consul Gonzalo Rubilar from the Commercial Office of the Consulate General of Chile in Guangzhou, President Ivan Andres Marambio of the Chilean Fruit Exporters Association, Director Claudia Patricia Soler of the Cherry Committee, Yonghui Superstores Vice President and Chief Product Officer She Xianping, Garces Fruit Greater China General Manager Juan Latife, Yuqian Group Chairman Zhang Ming, and senior representatives from related organizations.
Commercial Consul Gonzalo Rubilar stated that the complementary seasons of China and Chile provide a natural opportunity for two-way fruit trade. Chile has been the largest source of imported cherries for China for over a decade and has also successfully imported Chinese fruits like lychees, pears, and kiwifruit. He expressed hope for deepening cooperation in areas such as technical exchanges, variety innovation, post-harvest handling, and trade facilitation to achieve mutual benefit.
Claudia Patricia Soler, Director of the Cherry Committee, pointed out that the consumer base for cherries is continuously expanding, and consumption occasions are becoming more daily. She noted that Yonghui Superstores is a key partner for Chilean cherries in the Chinese market and that future collaboration will focus on offering more varieties, sizes, and packaging options to meet diverse consumer demands.
Yonghui Superstores Vice President and Chief Product Officer She Xianping expressed that the company will continue to deepen efficient cooperation with premium partners like the Chilean Fruit Exporters Association, Garces Fruit, and Yuqian Group. He emphasized implementing full-chain quality control management from harvesting and transportation to sales to deliver a high-quality imported fresh fruit experience for Chinese consumers.
Currently, Chilean cherries are at their peak sales period, with large volumes of freshly picked cherries rapidly arriving in the Chinese market via dedicated sea freight routes. Thanks to their consistently excellent quality and increasingly affordable prices, Chilean cherries have become a popular choice for daily consumption and festive gifting, igniting a winter fruit consumption boom. During the New Year's holiday period, sales of Chilean cherries in Yonghui Superstores nationwide approached 50 million yuan.
The "icebreaker" cherry is driving winter consumption, enriching the consumer experience through diverse scenarios. The Guangzhou event was specially held at the Yonghui Superstore in Huadu's Rongchuang Mao, the company's first store remodeled with a cultural tourism theme. It cleverly integrated an ice and snow experience into the offline retail environment, creating an immersive consumer interaction space. A dedicated cherry-themed interactive zone was set up where consumers could create cherry bouquets, sample cherry-infused special drinks, and taste various cherry varieties like Lapins, Kordia, Regina, and Rainier. Garces Fruit, a leading global cherry grower and exporter, provided extensive product support for the event. Through these scenario-based interactions, Yonghui Superstores not only enhanced consumer recognition of its cherry quality but also effectively stimulated purchasing enthusiasm, creating a visually appealing and enjoyable winter consumption feast.
At the festival, consumers who completed shopping or check-in tasks could participate in interactive games like claw machines and bean bag toss to win exclusive cherry-themed merchandise and gifts. A customer purchasing cherries on-site commented, "Quality is the top priority when choosing cherries. Yonghui's cherries are not only fresh-looking and crisp-sweet but also reasonably priced and beautifully packaged, making them an excellent choice for New Year gifts."
It was reported that the first shipment of high-quality sea-freighted cherries for Yonghui Superstores this season arrived in port successfully in early December, initially launching in the retailer's South China stores before gradually reaching nationwide locations. Since January, sea freight volumes for Chilean cherries have entered their peak period, and the dominant variety in the market has shifted from Santina to Lapins, the latter being brighter red, glossy, firm, storage-resistant, and suitable for consumers who prefer a sweet-tart flavor profile.
To preserve the fresh flavor of the cherries as much as possible, Yonghui Superstores has established strategic partnerships with premium exporters like Garces Fruit. Adhering to the principle of "direct sourcing from the origin, direct delivery of quality," and leveraging a mature cross-border fresh produce supply chain, the company implements a customized "pre-cooling for freshness lock-in + full-chain cold logistics" solution. This involves professional packaging and a sealed 0-2°C constant-temperature sea freight process, combined with efficient coordination of customs clearance and logistics, ensuring the cherries reach the shelves in optimal condition directly from the orchards.
With the Spring Festival approaching, the popularity of Chilean cherries continues to climb, making them a "star single product" in the New Year goods fruit market. It is understood that Yonghui Superstores' 2026 New Year Goods Festival officially commenced on January 9th, with Chilean cherries listed as one of the "30 ten-million-yuan quality hit products." They serve as a core item in the "family reunion feast" scenario, meeting consumer demand for high-quality "New Year flavors."
Moving forward, Yonghui Superstores will focus on the cherry category by optimizing thematic displays and creating festive atmospheres. To cater to Spring Festival gifting needs, the retailer will also launch special edition cherry gift boxes for the Year of the Horse and premium variety cherry gift sets for the holiday, further enriching New Year shopping choices.
The successful hosting of the "Chilean Cherry Ice & Snow Festival" represents another important practice of Yonghui Superstores' core operational model focusing on "Product Strength + Scene Power," following the milestone of over 300 remodeled stores nationwide. The event enhanced customer recognition of cherry quality through interactive scenes and, combined with synchronized new product arrivals across all stores and the New Year Goods Festival marketing campaign, created an organic online-to-offline linkage from point to area, allowing "great products" to accurately reach consumers through "great scenes."
A single cherry bears witness to the path of quality upgrading. Yonghui Superstores remains committed to building on the foundation of "Product Strength," deepening cooperation with global premium partners, and strengthening its global direct sourcing and full-chain quality control capabilities to guarantee product quality. Simultaneously, using "Scene Power" as an engine, the retailer integrates cherries and other world-class flavors into the daily lives of the nation, fulfilling its promise of being the "National Supermarket, Quality Yonghui," and injecting fresh vitality into China's winter consumption market.
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