Large Mart's Unique Fruit Gambit... "Fresh Food Differentiation"

Fast Delivery and Lowest Price Response in E-commerce
Lotte Mart Directly Contracts with Farms
Emart Seasonal Fruit Museum Event
Homeplus Focuses on Expanding Unique Varieties

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Large supermarkets are actively expanding exotic fruits through the development and discovery of new varieties. They are differentiating themselves by emphasizing the competitiveness of fresh food to counter the rapid delivery and lowest price offensive of e-commerce.

On the 8th, Lotte Mart began developing more than 10 new fruit varieties such as grapes, tangerines, and melons since last year. The first exotic new variety introduced, the Sweetel tomato, ranked among the top-selling fruits overall, and varieties such as Shine Gamgyul, which boasts sweetness as high as Shine Muscat, and Violet King, a wine-colored hybrid of Shine Muscat, also received positive responses from consumers. Lotte Mart supplies most exotic varieties through direct contracts with farms. In particular, they are continuously carrying out the K-Variety Project, which introduces domestic new varieties, and have strengthened local merchandisers (MDs) for close communication with farms and production area management.

Emart is increasing exotic fruit varieties and holding seasonal fruit museum events. The number of tomato varieties expanded from 6 in 2019 to 17 currently, strawberries from 2 to 10, and oranges from 1 to 5. From January to March this year, exotic strawberry sales increased by 48.8% and exotic tomato sales by 27.6% compared to the previous year. Emart continuously receives popular varieties from overseas seed companies to discover exotic varieties and conducts pilot cultivation through Korea’s most advanced smart farms. They are also fostering new varieties in collaboration with excellent domestic production areas.

Homeplus is also focusing on expanding exotic varieties, increasing tomato varieties from 11 to 14. As a result, the sales proportion of new tomato varieties increased from about 10% last year to about 20% this year, and total tomato sales last month rose about 10% compared to the same period last year. Homeplus selects seeds and conducts test cultivation before launching exotic fruits. Products that pass test cultivation are trial sold in some stores, and after gauging customer response, they are expanded to all stores. Through this process, Snack Tomato, Sweet Tango Tomato, and Red Star Tomato were launched.

A representative from a large supermarket said, "We are preparing various new fruit varieties according to consumer demand for unique products," adding, "We plan to additionally introduce exotic premium fruits that delight both the eyes and the palate in the future."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.