China's largest pineapple production area, Xuwen County in Guangdong, is in the middle of a bumper harvest. The supply volume this year consists of the harvest of almost 16,667 hectares of pineapple plantations, which could reach 400 thousand tons with a production value of more than 500 million yuan [79.31 million USD]. This accounts for a third of the national production volume of pineapples. The market this year enjoys both high yield and high reward in comparison with last year.
The purchasing price of pineapples started to increase after Spring Festival. The current purchasing price at the plantation already reached 1.3-1.4 yuan [0.21-0.22 USD] per 0.5 kg. This is an obvious improvement compared to the 0.1 yuan [0.02 USD] per 0.5 kg during the depressed market of 2016. While the market for domestic pineapples looks good, the import volume of pineapples also increases.
The import volume of pineapples increased rapidly and has great potential. Chinese pineapple import maintained an annual growth of around 35% between 2011 and 2017. The import volume of pineapples in 2017 reached 146 thousand tons with a value of 146 million USD, which is an increase of 43% and 33.2% respectively. China mainly imports pineapples from the Philippines, Taiwan, and Costa Rica. Pineapple import from the Philippines is the largest and accounts for 77.5% of China's pineapple import. The current price of pineapples from the Philippines is 909 USD per ton.
The price of pineapples from Taiwan is the highest at 1409 USD per ton. Pineapple import from Taiwan accounts for 18.13% of China's pineapple import. Costa Rica has recently obtained permission to import pineapples in China and develops rapidly. Their market share grew from nothing to 3.7% in 2017. Their price is relatively low at 756 USD per ton, so they have much potential for market growth.
Source: iFreshFair