Ni Hao (Hello) Disney

If you’re looking for one big food battle that people have waged over the years, it’s getting kids to eat more fruit.

We might have the answer out of Hong Kong, where Chinese importer Nongfu has introduced Disney branded fruit products. Knowing Disney’s penchant for keeping close tabs on Mickey and his minions, the deal took years to come to the table. But Nongfu now has a license to develop fruits of any category or variety, and put Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck and Winnie the Pooh on the package.

There are of course caveats to the arrangements as there always are for Disney licensees. Every product has to go through a strict approval process, and the company can only work with GAP-certified farms to insure product safety.

At present, the selection includes avocados, cherries, oranges and apples, and other products are likely to be introduced in the near future.

Of course, all this is not being driven by Chinese children’s love of fruit but by the opening this year of the first Disneyland on mainland China in Shanghai. Apparently, the Chinese love everything Disney. But the question is for how long? The product is aimed at the high-income Chinese consumer. But you can’t live on that forever so the importer is working on getting the price down to make Disney fruit available to mainstream customers without sacrificing quality.