In China the influence of this new virus on domestic sales of fruit and vegetables has been growing every day for more than a month now.
One fruit trader from Sichuan explained the situation as follows: "We have encountered unmarketable conditions for our products in recent weeks. This is the combined effect of policies for containment and public fear of infection. Many people have decided to stay in their own homes and few people are still willing to go out for shopping. Fruit in particular is not a necessity, so only a small number of people is willing to go out and buy fruit. Some companies resumed operations in the last few days and we also received some orders from supermarkets, but we do not have enough workers, so we find it difficult to keep up with our delivery targets. Offline sales are quite slow, but online sales remain at a regular level. However, because the holidays are extended and many warehouses have not yet resumed operations, many of our orders are still waiting to be processed."
The corona virus did not just affect sales conditions in the domestic fruit market. The export industry felt the impact as well. Manager Sun works at a frozen fruit and vegetable export company. According to her, "although most foreign traders can work from home, the physical product processing aspect of business requires people to gather in groups. We expect to resume business on February 9th. Many of the export orders have been delayed."
A ginger exporter from Shandong stated the following: "We had planned to ship three containers full of ginger before the 15th of January, but now we are forced to halt our operations. We are unable to deliver our products on time."
The balance between supply and demand in the international market is disturbed because China is unable to deliver on time. This in turn has a chain effect on overseas markets. One frozen garlic supplier explained the situation: "In addition to several reasons for delayed delivery, there is also a reduction in the number of overseas orders. The price soared in the last few days. Clients with products are able to make a sizable profit."
Reports show that the prices of fresh ginger and garlic in the market of Pakistan increased fourfold. Although Russia did not completely prohibit all Chinese fruit and vegetable import, they did severely restrict import from China, which massively reduced the volume of Chinese fruit and vegetables in the Russian market. Still, the few products there are already twice as expensive in comparison with several weeks ago. Many Russian importers are looking for suppliers from other countries to replace Chinese imports.
One supplier from Guangzhou gave the following statement: "Transport in the Shenzhen and Hong Kong area continues for 360 days per year, so as a transport company we can not afford to halt our operations. The current processing speed of shipping containers is still regular. There is no stagnation in our port."