TASMANIAN cherries are being sold on China's largest online shopping platform, TMall.
Cygnet-based cherry grower Glenburn Orchards is the first Tasmanian orchard to sell fruit through TMall, which has 15 million visitors, a day.
"Cherries are picked and packed in Tasmania, and airfreighted into Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing, before being distributed by courier to the door of the consumer," Glenburn owner Maree Harvey said.
The sale followed a visit by Fruit Growers Tasmania to TMall's parent, the Alibaba Group, last November.
Glenburn sold 500kg of cherries, in the three days after posting them on the website.
Ms Harvey said Glenburn's business development manager Chris Chen set up the deal.
"Based around a 72-hour time-frame, this sees Glenburn, through Chris, manage the entire process from orchard to door."
"As far as Glenburn goes, it's a wonderful opportunity to market the product, and I believe it is another avenue for people to obtain Tasmanian cherries – it is literally from the orchard to the door."
There was strict control over the quality of the cherries, from growing them, to their eventual delivery, she said.
"The Chinese coolstore is quite state of the art, they are kept in controlled conditions before they are despatched to where they need to go."
That level of care began from the time the cherry blossoms came out, she said.
"You have to protect them from harm, diseases and insects, and you need to pick them at the right time, so the fruit is optimal.
"The perfect cherry takes a lot of passion, hard work and commitment from the farmers – it's not just a cherry in a box."
The yield at Glenburn would be down a little this year, due to rain earlier this month.
"We had a crop of around 180-200 tonnes, but if there is no rain, we can get up to 300 tonnes," Ms Harvey said.
"They're what I call my little cherry babies, they are nurtured on the trees and in the picking, and they get cared for when they come in from the orchard and get tender loving care, in the packing process, to get them in that box and out to the customer."
Mr Chen said the sales would coincide with Chinese New Year, which falls on February 19.
"Cherry sales are big in China at this moment, but 90pc of cherries are from South America, or Chile," Mr Chen said.
"We sent out our first shipment to Shanghai last week, we used the pre-selling business model, where people buy our cherries first and then we ship them later.
"Cherries are quite a luxury fruit, and the quality will be damaged by temperature and long term storage."