The price of Chinese garlic has shown a slow but steady upward trend since fresh garlic entered the market this year. Christian of Shandong Fortunate Farm Trade Co., Ltd. recently talked about current conditions in the Chinese garlic market.
Fortunate Farm mainly exports garlic to Southeast Asia and the Middle East. "Market demand from these two regions has recently been quite strong. We export about 4-5 shipping containers per week. The price is currently around 2,600-3,000 yuan [366-423 USD] per ton, depending on the size and product quality of the garlic in question. That is almost 20% lower than the price level around this time last year," explained Christian.
"The garlic price is much lower than last year. The production volume is also much bigger than last year. If the price continues to rise, then traders who purchase garlic to stock their warehouses will start to worry. They may temporarily stop buying garlic. I therefore expect the garlic price to continue rising slowly in the next few weeks. However, the price will not rise too high. This development may continue into July, but then the market will change. How the market will change depends on the decisions made by traders who have the warehouse space to store garlic."
"In the end, the overall surface area devoted to garlic plantation in China expanded by around 18.2% in 2020. As for the product quality, the size of garlic is much bigger this year in comparison with last year. Almost 40% of the garlic falls in the category of 6.0# and above. There is still some old garlic from last season for sale on the Chinese market. Garlic traders have different estimates of the exact volume of old garlic left in storage. Some traders say that there is still around 700-800 thousand tons left, while others think that there is only as little as 300-400 thousand tons left in storage. I think that the volume of old garlic in storage is somewhere in the middle, around 500-600 thousand tons," said Christian.
"Garlic from production areas in Brazil enters the international market at the same time as fresh garlic from production areas in China. However, I do not believe that the arrival of Brazilian garlic on the international market will have a significant impact on the market position of fresh Chinese garlic. China is one of the largest garlic producers in the world and Chinese garlic has no competitor, whether in terms of overall surface area devoted to garlic plantation or in terms of overall production volume. Other countries simply can not match the garlic production of China. The export volume of Chinese garlic accounts for 70%-80% of the global garlic trade volume. The conditions in the international market follow trends in the Chinese garlic industry, not the other way around. The price of Chinese garlic is lower than the price of garlic from other countries. That is one of the main advantages of Chinese garlic and one of the reasons why Chinese garlic occupies such a strong position in the international market."
For more information:
Christian
Shandong Fortunate Farm Trade Co., Ltd.
Tel.: +86 15265793002
WhatsApp: +86 15265793002
E-mail: fortunatefarm@hotmail.com