China: Hainan government aid plan after pineapple sales dip

In response to the sales stagnation of pineapples in Wanning, officials have launched the 'Wanning city 2017 Pineapple Distribution Emergency Subsidy Plan'. It gives a transport subsidy of 120 RMB per ton to distribution companies that purchase pineapples at Wanning city. 

The total harvest surface for Wanning pineapples is over 2000 hectares. Longgun village additionally has 1133 hectares of surface for pineapple harvest. The losses due to the sales stagnation this year were calculated by the head of the Longgun Pineapple Association, Xu Lian. Pineapple farmers have a cultivation surface that ranges from about a tenth of a hectare to over half a dozen hectares. A good harvest gives a yield of more than 150,000 RMB per hectare, but because the sales stagnated this year, the price dropped severely. The farmers earn about 30,000 RMB per hectare, which is not nearly enough to recover the production costs, let alone the costs from the losses of farmers who rent their cultivation surface. This year, the market share of the Xuwen pineapples in Guangdong has increased. This pushes the Wanning pineapples out of the market. Moreover, the pineapple production has greatly increased in scale this year. Wenchang and Ding'an county both have a relatively large pineapple cultivation surface this year. This too is a reason for the current situation of the pineapple sales stagnation.

Source: www.xinhuanet.com