PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA In the People’s Republic of China, after the competition for finding a new name for hazelnut ended and the name Weizhenguo was given to hazelnut, there have been regular advertising and promotion activities since August 2001. Below is a summary of the activities performed in the People’s Republic of China. A Chinese website called www.hpgchina.com was prepared to support the activities in People’s Republic of China. In order to encourage the large number of small- and medium-size enterprises in the People’s Republic of China to use hazelnuts in their products and to help them meet their small-scale hazelnut needs, a “Turkish Hazelnut Promotion Centre” has been founded.

In order to popularize hazelnut in China, the hazelnuts produced in the “Turkish Hazelnut Promotion Centre” have been presented in the supermarkets in Beijing and Shanghai in salty, chocolate and sweet forms. Efforts to enter the market were completed in Guangzhou, another important Chinese city besides Beijing and Shanghai, and hazelnut sales started in the city markets. Promotional activities for consumers have been organised in the supermarkets in Beijing and Shanghai and consumers were allowed to taste hazelnut at the weizhenguo stands built in markets and several promotional weizhenguo gifts were given.

Upon a press conference held in the “Promotion Centre”, a “Weizhenguo Journalists Club” was established with members being representatives from big food companies and people from the press, and a team of 20 people from Chinese papers with high circulation and from leading food processors visited Turkey to examine in situ the Turkish hazelnut, hazelnut processing phases and applications. Promotional broadcasts for Weizhenguo were made in the International Chinese Radio about the applications of Weizhenguo and its health benefits, etc. Training courses for the food processing markets were given in the “Promotion Centre”, samples were sent to potential users of hazelnut, newsletters were delivered and visitors were accepted to the Promotion Centre. 200.000 packages of 10 gr Weizhenguo were distributed in 95 primary schools in consideration of the fact that the single child policy has made the Chinese children the small empire of the family. As another important activity targeted at children, several Weizhenguo gifts and samples were given to children in the parks on the “Children’s Day”. Weizhenguo promotional show was done for 3 months in the Sophie’s Bakery Food company shops which is located in Beijing with a chain of 30 shops and whose basic products are cakes, ice-cream cakes, western type biscuits and European type chocolates. This company was highly interested in Weizhenguo to use in products such as cake, bread, western type cake and chocolate. It has been declared that the cooperation with Sophie’s Bakery Food will be a good starting point to spread the use of Weizhenguo in the entire Chinese bakery industry.

A monthly newspaper has been published including information such as the nutritional profile and applications of hazelnut and the current activities and delivered to about 1200 manufacturers, 4-5 star hotels and related research organisations that are potential users of hazelnut in China. A promotional show was organised in Fujian, a region with a large number of food processing plants and particularly well developed in bakery. During this activity which was participated by about 400 people from bakery industry, professional technicians from Fujian and Guangdong states have made a promotional show for Weizhenguo, participants were allowed to taste Weizhenguo free of charge, Weizhenguo Promotional Group technicians gave technical information about the use of Turkish hazelnut, and products were made such as hazelnut cake and barbeque hazelnut biscuit containing hazelnut flour, honey cake with minced hazelnut and hazelnut cake with hazelnut puree. This activity made Weizhenguo more popular among the food processing companies in Fujian and Guangdong region. On the other hand, several exhibitions were attended and technical seminars were organised to increase the number of companies that use hazelnut in their products. “Asia Food Additives Exhibition” in Shanghai was attended and a professional seminar was given about ‘The Use WEIZHENGUO in Chocolate & Pastry Industry’ during the exhibition which was visited by more than 16.000 food additive professionals. “2004 Chinese International Food Additives and Dairy Products Trade Exhibition” was attended. A seminar about ‘The Use of Weizhenguo in Pastries & Dairy Industry’ was given in the exhibition. The “2004 ACBA 8 th Chinese Baking & 2004 Interbake Trade Exhibition” in Guangzhou was attended and a seminar titled “The Use of Weizhenguo in Bakery and Dairy Products” was given in the exhibition. “Bakery China 2004” exhibition organised by the Chinese Bakery and Confectionary Industry as the biggest exhibition in bakery industry was attended and a technical seminar was given about “The Use of Turkish Weizhenguo in Pastries and Dairy Products”. Weizhenguo advertisements that had been given in the food processing market and retail market were used in the media. Advertisements were given in two separate metro lines and on buses in Beijing and Shanghai. News about Weizhenguo was published in magazines and newspapers such as China Food Newspaper, China Baking, China Food Industry Magazine, Beijing Evening News. The “Chinese International Ice-cream Industry Exhibition” in Tianjin was attended to give a seminar about “The Use of Weizhenguo in Ice-cream”. “Turkish Meal Week” organised in Sheraton Hotel as part of the activities in the Festival of the Republic was attended with a stand for the promotion of Turkish hazelnut.

“8 th International Food Industry Exhibition” was attended in Guangzhou.