In the first half of 2017, the Tianjin Inspection and Quarantine Bureau inspected 63,900 tons of imported fruits worth 52.413 million US dollars in total. Compared to the first half of last year, it's lower by 8.4% and 35.3% respectively. Imported vegetables that were inspected amounted to 376 tons, worth about 210,000 US dollars, which is also lower by 27% and 17% respectively. Prices are going down as well as the import.
Imported fruits are mostly made up of bananas, pinapples, grapes, coconuts, oranges and kiwis - more then 10 kinds of fruits in total. The main importing countries are the Philippines, Ecuador, Chile, Thailand, Egypt and others. Vegetables, on the contrary, are mostly just pumpkins and onions from New Zealand.
According to the Tianjin Inspection and Quarantine Bureau's employees analysis, the main reason why Tianjin port got less fruit in the first half of this year is down to the continuing prosperity of the national market. The appearance, packaging and marketing of Chinese fruits are on the same level with imported ones. Prices of domestic fruits are lower, while the taste and quality are ever-more appreciated by customers. All those factors influenced prices and imports. However, there are fruits that still have the same high import. For example, bananas account for more then 70% of all imports. The import rate of coconuts from Tailand has been increasing rapidly, it is 21 times higher than in the previous year.
Source: http://www.jwb.com.cn