The market for imported Spanish oranges this year faces considerable challenges. Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the market is full of uncertainties, and many Spanish companies have decided to reduce the volume or no longer ship to the Chinese market, leading to decreased export volumes. Nevertheless, there are still strong Spanish brands that are able to export to China and supply high-quality Spanish oranges. Bollo, a seasoned Spanish citrus exporter with an exclusive importer in China, Grandfruit, is one of them.
“Regardless of the situation and the market, we have stable imports each year, as we are guided by the principle of long-term cooperation and the goal of building the best brand for imported oranges,” Mr. Jiang Chuanhui of Grandfruit said about this season.
“When we started shipping this year, the pandemic hadn’t broken out. The season begins more or less at the same time each year, and this year, our first shipment arrived in early January, earlier than last year; it was the end of February last year. The supply period of Spanish oranges is expected to continue through the end of July. Overall, the demand is much less than last year, and the price is not as good, so we have reduced the import volume accordingly. The main reason for the declined demand is that as opposed to European consumers who increased their consumption of fruits during the pandemic, consumers in China tend to buy more daily necessities rather than fruits. " 
"Our sales are mainly affected by local and American oranges. Because of lower tariffs this year, the import volume of American oranges has increased significantly compared with last year. In addition, the pandemic has greatly affected consumer demand, and the market sales price has been very low, which has a certain impact on the sales of out Bollo oranges. However, we are not affected by Egyptian oranges, as they have a different consumer group and consumer scenarios. Those products are mainly used for juicing, while Spanish products are mainly consumed fresh.” 
“Little train” packaging
"This year, we mainly aim at secondary wholesale markets in capital cities. At the same time, we are also focusing on the development of fruit retail chains. Due to the pandemic, we are currently rather reserved in our marketing efforts, mainly focusing on customer channels developed last year."
This year, Bollo has introduced a specially designed package of “little train" and has displayed it in several stores. Since packaging is an important factor for sales in China, each year Bollo and Grandfruit China pay close attention to the packaging and appearance of their oranges and create highly innovative designs.
"The little train is a new package we launched this year,” Mr. Jiang Chuanhui said. “Bollo creates new packaging every year and continues to create new consumer experiences. We also work with Bollo to promote new packaging every year. ‘Little train' is mainly used for decoration and promotion, as well as in the supermarket as a display. This year we also introduced Sweetheart, a small box of 4 pieces, which is improved on the basis of 2 pieces last year. This product is very popular and flies off the shelf. We plan to import this packaging in large volumes next year. " 
"According to the Spanish export data and port information, other exporters have suspended shipments to China from week 16, so Bollo will be the only supplier in Spain that continues to ship to China until the end of the season, which means in the next one or two months, Bollo will most likely be the only Spanish orange brand remaining in the market this season!" 
"In addition, due to the weather, the overall size this season is relatively large. Later Bollo oranges are also mainly large in size, especially after the late variety of Powell becomes available, but the quality and taste will not be affected. Powell, a late variety offered by Bollo, is the best-tasting imported orange of the year. Compared to American oranges that are also late varieties but have frequent quality problems, Bollo oranges from Spanish may be the fresh orange offerings with the best quality and taste on the market in the next one or two months. "
More Information:
Jiang Chuanhui (Brian)
Grandfruit
Tel.: +86 18516572628
Email: brian@grandfruitchina.com
www.grandfruitchina.com