On line to pick up online purchases
Apr 27, 2020
HONG KONG – As COVID-19 has curtailed large group gatherings in most places around the world, USA Rice is getting creative when it comes to international promotion activities. Here in Hong Kong, USA Rice is participating in an online food fair promoting U.S. agricultural products, sponsored by the U.S. Agricultural Trade Service (ATO) and HKTVMall, the largest online platform in Hong Kong.
The virtual USA Food Fair started on April 14 and runs through today. The promotion campaign consists of cooking demonstration videos by Candace Mama, a popular online celebrity, preparing dishes featuring U.S.-origin rice.
In addition to the online presence, HKTVMall has set up 100 distribution centers throughout Hong Kong where consumers can drive by to pick up merchandise they have ordered online. This delivery option has become increasingly popular -- in January 2017, average daily orders numbered 2,500 growing to 18,700 by December 2019.
Another big jump in online ordering occurred between December 2019 and February 2020 when the average daily gross merchandise value doubled, going from HK$8.7 million (US$1.12 million) to HK$16.6 Million (US$2.14 million), due in large part to the social distancing requirements put in place to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S. exported 5,629 MT of rice to Hong Kong in 2019, a little less than 2 percent of total imports of 307,000 MT.