China: Rain delays harvesting of Mei County kiwis

"Mei County is located right on the border of north and south China, at the foot of the Taibai mountain in Qinling. It is considered one of China's and the world's best production regions for kiwis, with fertile soil, clean air, enough light, and rather large temperature differences. The harvest of Mei County kiwis starts annually in September, and continues until the end of October. This year's kiwi production is going well. The current market price is around 14 yuan per 500 gram, which is a drop of 0.70 yuan from last year," states Ms. Wang Yulian from Shaanxi Mei County standardized kiwi fields.

"There are two reasons why the purchasing price has dropped. Firstly, the heavy rain in September and October has delayed the harvesting time. That means that we have missed the best selling times, right before the National Holiday and Mid-Autumn Festival. If we do not want to miss the next peak seasons for kiwis, around New Year's Day and Chinese New Year, we have no choice but to put our freshly harvested kiwis in refrigerated storages. This will undoubtedly increase our operation costs. Secondly, if we put our kiwis directly into refrigerated storage after harvesting, we will only supply them to distributors and supermarkets all over China by the beginning of next year. Over this period of time, they can become damaged."

"Our 6 hectares (60 mu) standardized kiwi fields are located in Mei County, Shaanxi. We mainly grow green Xuxiang kiwis, and small quantities of green Qinmei kiwis. This year's production is similar to last year's. To guarantee our high quality, we cut off a part of the branches and sprouts in the germinating period, and pick some flowers and infected fruit in the blossoming time, so that we can control production and quality as best as we can."

"Currently, our kiwis are mainly purchased through salesmen. We have partnered with retail agents, who sell our kiwis through traditional sales channels and online to distributors and supermarkets in first and second tier cities, like Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Even though our online sales are only 5% of our total sales, this is only the beginning. We are hoping that interested e-commerce platforms will contact us to discuss business together."

"Through many years of hard work, and with the support of the local government, Mei County kiwis have become one of the most influential Chinese agricultural brands. Many Chinese and foreign radio stations and media have reported on us, making Mei County a high quality kiwi production area, and the only national kiwi distribution center. I am very confident about the future. We believe that, through using mutually profitable and diversified partnerships, our high quality kiwis will go very far."

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