An ad in China featuring Preferred Popcorn.
Preferred Popcorn of Chapman, Neb., has a new deal to continue selling its product in China.
ZLTR Trading, Inc., agreed to purchase millions of pounds of bulk popcorn to keep China as one of Preferred’s largest markets.
“There are eight cities in America that have over one million (people) and in China there are 140 cities that have over one million,” Norm Krug, Preferred Popcorn CEO, tells Nebraska Radio Network. “It does make a lot of sense for a highly productive state, like Nebraska, to export to a country that has so many people.”
Krug says they ship about 20 containers of popcorn to China each week. In comparison, he says they sell just one to the University of Nebraska in a year.
Preferred began its business relationship with ZLTR more than five years ago.
“We talk a lot about trusting each other and we’ve developed a good partnership where we operate with integrity,” Krug says. “We can count on them to purchase the corn and they count on us to provide a high-quality product.”
ZLTR re-sells Preferred’s bulk popcorn in 50 pound bags to theaters across China and ready-to-eat popcorn producers.
“It’s a great success story when we can take a raw Nebraska product, add value to it, and export it,” Krug says. “That’s revenue for the local farmers who produce the popcorn as well as provide jobs.”
Preferred Popcorn has customers in 70 countries.