Chinese ginger is in high demand in Europe. The product price has increased by 50% in just a few weeks. With Chinese suppliers starting to export less product, European importers are uncertain how the market will develop in the coming weeks.
Mr. Ralf Settels is a professional ginger importer in Germany: “The ginger that arrives now from China is what we ordered 6 weeks ago. At the moment, we order 2-3 containers of organic ginger, and 3 containers of conventional ginger per week. German wholesales are now buying big volumes from us. The market demand is much higher than supply at the moment, so we do not have much on hand and what comes in is immediately sold.” Mr. Settels said.
“With the Coronavirus outbreak, people are paying more attention to their own health. They think vegetables like ginger can protect their health in a natural way. That is why ginger at retail chains is sold very quickly.”
“At the moment, the price for conventional ginger is around 6-9 euro/kg (packed) at the store, this price is 50% higher than last year during the same period. The increase in price is mainly due to the high demand from the market, and poor availability of other types of vegetables.” Mr. Settels said, “Usually, the low season for ginger starts by the end of April or early May. The price starts dropping around that period. But with the impact of the corona pandemic this season, I do not know when the low season will happen. It is difficult to tell.”
“However, we do not expect that there will be lots of new ginger coming from China in the following period. On the one hand, as the coronavirus outbreak is developing very fast in Europe, Chinese suppliers are concerned whether European ports can operate as normal in the next few weeks. They are therefore hesitant to send new containers out. On the other hand, some European buyers are importing less from China, as they are afraid that, once the local market price drops down rapidly, or once the demand from the market diminishes, then they have to pay a lot for the storage of those products.”
Jiahe Food GmbH is a subsidiary company of Jiahe Group China. The company imports more than 500 containers of ginger from China per year. Germany and the Netherlands are their main markets. Their products are mainly sold to local supermarket chains and to wholesalers.
Ralf Settels
Jiahe Food GmbH
+49 24318779799
rs@jiahefood.eu