Lower prices for Chilean Sweet Cherries in China/HK

While in Chile the last volumes of sweet cherries are being shipped, in China the markets are in full swing. The Shipments from Chile this campaign reached unprecedented volumes and it is expected to close the season with a total volume of 100.000 tons. Also, during 2014/15 the China/HK market gained more importance, increasing its market share in 10% with respect to last season, reaching an impressive 78%. In simpler words, 3 out of 4 exported Chilean sweet cherries go to China/HK.

The previous has been a consequence of different factors; the principal being the great demand that this product has, especially in the Chinese New Year season. This in former seasons led to extremely high prices in the weeks before the celebration; in many cases higher than any other market. However, the date of the Chinese New Year differs and this year will be on February 19th, a “late” date for most of the sweet cherry shipments.

Also, the harvest of Bing (the main exported variety) this season was affected by heavy rains, fortunately, until week 4 the quality was still reported good, without major problems. However the dynamic of exports was affected; instead of recording a peak of arrivals like in 2013/14, in this season there has been 5 consecutive weeks with arrivals over the 10,000 tons.

Therefore, in the Guangzhou market (Southern China), a drop in the price was recorded during January, from 65 RMB/K on average recorded on week 1, to the 50 RMB/K in week 4. Different from last season when the average price for sizes J and SJ stayed in a range between 60 and 70 RMB/K between week 1 and 4, despite the volume increase. This is because the Chinese New Year was on January 31st (week 5) and the peak of arrivals recorded on week 3 was accompanied with an increase in the demand.

Source: iQonsulting