U.S. Tart Cherries: A trendy Ingredient for Functional Foods in China

While the pandemic is still going on, Chinese people’s pursuit of a healthy lifestyle is growing higher. Functional foods or nutrition supplements, which used to be popular with seniors, have now become a convenient and healthy option for younger generations as well along with regular exercise.

CMI has been focusing the marketing effort on trade and consumer education of U.S. tart cherry’s nutritional value and health benefits through media activities and PR events. In FY2021/22, a total of 3 trade advertorials and 160 media coverage articles were released on Chinese trade and consumer media platforms, reaching more than 135,000,000 impressions.

In addition to recommending dried U.S. tart cherry as a healthy snack food, CMI also promotes U.S. tart cherry products as a trendy and high-value food ingredient in the food & beverage industry. Via trade shows and trade media advertorials, Chinese traders have realized the business opportunities of using U.S. tart cherries for new functional food products.  As a result, more Chinese health food manufacturers have started to use U.S. tart cherries as a functional ingredient for their products. U.S. tart cherry concentrate, in specific, is now a popular ingredient for health drink products.

A new product, Tart Cherry Oligopeptide Drink, has been launched the market in June 2022. U.S. tart cherry concentrate is one of the featured ingredients in the product, which helps relieve joint pain and reduce inflammation. The product is available in most functional or health food stores throughout China and is being promoted on various media platforms including social media. It targets consumers, who conduct regular exercises or have joint pain problems, and is recommended as a functional drink for staying energetic.

Since its launch, it has received great interest from Chinese consumers as well as the domestic functional food industry. The distributor of the U.S. tart cherry concentrate has also received many inquiries recently. It is believed that the launch of this tart cherry drink can help raise the industry’s awareness of U.S. tart cherries and encourage more manufacturers to use U.S. tart cherries as a high-value ingredient.