Trade | Booming Portuguese cherry exports target Macau

Cherry production in the Portuguese region of Fundão is “blooming”, mostly due to a new strategy that aims to attract tourists to the up-country region.
According to the Fundão Mayor, Paulo Fernandes, “the business is now worth over EUR20 million (MOP180 million) per year” and production fields keep multiplying.
That means good news for a region traditionally sustained by subsistence agriculture but which is now evolving due to local and foreign investment.
Around 15 percent of the region’s annual produce is being exported. Angola, Brazil, England and the northern European countries are the major export markets. Macau and the Middle East are other regions where the number of contacts is growing and exports are looking to increase in the near future.
The mayor told online journal “Dinheiro Vivo” that in the past six years the growth rate has been about 10 percent year-on-year, a trend that he expects to continue with the addition of “several new products and by-products of the business.”
The secret seems to be in the “branding” or, as Mr Fernandes says, “in connecting a good product to a good brand,” as this provides stability and creates a safety barrier to allow the business to grow. RM