Conditions in the Chinese apple market have been less than ideal this season. Apart from the market conditions for Huaniu apples, other apple varieties all experienced worse conditions than last year. Many of the traders who purchased apples this season still have large volumes left over in their refrigerated warehouses. Furthermore, market supply is slow. Manager Li Ying of Qingyang Qingxin Fruit Industry Co., Ltd. recently talked about the current sales conditions in Shaanxi production areas.
"The supply speed of red Fuji apples from production areas in Qingyang city has been relatively high in the season of 2019-2020. The reason for this situation is that the market conditions for Chinese apples have been universally bad in the last few months and many retailers are worried that the price of apples will drop even further after Chinese Spring Festival [25 January, 2020]. They are therefore selling their apples as quickly as possible.The strange thing is this, although the market price of apples dropped to around 2.8-3 yuan [0.41-0.44 USD] per 0.5 kg, the price of fruit in refrigerated storage continues to rise."
"This is most visible in the price of top-quality apples, which is currently around 3.7 yuan [0.54 USD] per 0.5 kg. Although the purchase price of apples from refrigerated storage is higher than the retail price of apples, many traders are still purchasing apples from refrigerated storage. The reason for this situation is completely impossible to understand. Perhaps these traders already accepted purchase orders from third parties," said manager Li.
"Although market conditions have been less than ideal for the last few months, we mainly supply red Fuji apples to chain stores, which means that our supply volume is quite stable. The market conditions do not have a huge impact on our sales volume. We still have around 1,500 tons of red Fuji apples in our warehouse, which is more or less the same as around this time last year."
The market conditions for Aksu candy apples from Xinjiang are very different from the market conditions of red Fuji apples. The supply speed is quite slow. "We still have around 2-3 thousand tons left in our warehouse. Are reserve volume is much bigger than around this time last year. Apart from this, the apples from Xinjiang production areas entered the market with two weeks delay. The fruit spent more time on the tree and the color is not as beautiful as last year. And the apples still a bit sour."
"There are many traders in China who pretend they sell Aksu candy apples, which causes confusion in the apple market. The price of Aksu candy apples from Xinjiang is around 3.5 yuan [0.51 USD] per 0.5 kg, but the price of fake candy apples is around 2 yuan [0.29 USD] per 0.5 kg," explained manager Li.
"Aksu candy apples are not among the market favorites, because their product quality is not equal to the quality of red Fuji or Huaniu apples. We mostly sell our apples online. In December last year, we exported our candy apples to Hong Kong for the first time. However, the political tensions in Hong Kong affect their economic situation, and many supermarkets and wholesale markets have reduced their purchase volume. We expected to export 2 shipping containers full of apples to Hong Kong within a month, but at the moment the first container is not even full yet."
"The market conditions for Huaniu apples are quite good in comparison with the market conditions for red Fuji apples and Aksu candy apples. We acquired around 6 thousand tons of Huaniu apples this year and they are all sold out. This season the price of Huaniu apples reached the lowest point of the last 10 years. The price was around 3.7-3.8 yuan [0.54-0.55 USD] per 0.5 kg when the apples entered the market in August, but the price quickly dropped to 0.6-0.7 yuan [0.09-0.10 USD] per 0.5 kg by the end of the season. The price of apples from refrigerated storage is currently around 1.7-1.8 yuan [0.25-0.26 USD] per 0.5 kg," said manager Li.
"However, the price encouraged our sales. The online sales of Huaniu apples went particularly well this year. Our online supply speed was extremely quick. We have currently sold around 5 thousand tons of Huaniu apples. The combined sales volume of red Fuji apples and Aksu candy apples is around 1 thousand tons. We are in negotiation with new buyers, because we hope to develop new retail channels that can help us increase our supply speed," explained manager Li.
For more information:
Li Ying - Manager
Qingyang Qingxin Fruit Industry Co., Ltd.
Tel.: 18293094424
E-mail: 3098436004@qq.com
Website: https://qingxinbusiness.1688.com/