Some Chinese pomegranate farmers, with a limited understanding of plantation technology, harvested their pomegranates too early last year, which resulted in a confusing mix of poor-quality and top-quality products in the Chinese pomegranate market. This year, however, the market remained quite stable throughout the season. The season is now almost over. Manager Liu of Sichuan B-Fruit Agriculture Co., Ltd. recently talked about the current conditions in the Chinese pomegranate market.
According to manager Liu, a much smaller number of visiting traders made the journey to the pomegranate orchards this year because of the outbreak of Covid-19. The purchasing price in production areas was therefore much lower than last year. The average market price was around 3.5 yuan [0.52 USD] per 0.5 kg. That is quite normal for Chinese pomegranates. "The production volume in the orchard with which we cooperate reached around 3 million kg. The actual harvest, however, only reached 2 million kg because of extreme weather conditions in the production area this year. After two months of sales, we only have 150 thousand kg left in our warehouse."
"There has been a new development in the fruit market in recent years. Certain popular 'milk tea' brands create online trends for certain flavors, and this in turn results in growing market demand for certain fruits. This season the milk tea brands introduced the 'forceful pomegranate' and 'pomegranate abundance'. These two flavors of milk tea caused a rapid rise in market demand for pomegranates this year. While we continue to maintain our traditional retail channels, we also developed new connections with suppliers for milk tea chains."
B-Fruit Agriculture cooperates with orchards in Sichuan. The orchards cover a surface area of around 200 hectares. Their sales channels include e-commerce platforms such as JD, Xiaomi, and NetEase, as well as large-scale shops such as Hualian Supermarkets and Rainbow Department Stores. And the company also supplies pomegranates to fresh fruit stores such as Pioneer and Green Leaf. "We cooperate with local farmers and provide them with rural capital, pesticides, as well as instructions in the use of plantation technology. We implement strict standards in the pomegranate orchards, because that is the only way to guarantee the highest product quality. We carefully control every segment of the supply chain. That is how we avoid excessive use of fertilizer, or the early harvest of unripe fruit. We purchase our pomegranates at prices above the market average because our pomegranates meet higher standards. That is how we guarantee product quality and raise the income of the local farmers with whom we cooperate."
The fruit size of seedless Tunisian pomegranates is larger and the fruit peel is thinner. The pomegranate is a bright red color and the pomegranate seeds are a deep scarlet. The pomegranate bear a pleasing resemblance to small cornelians. The flavor is sweet and product quality is excellent. This pomegranate ripens early and survives storage well. The seedless Tunisian pomegranate is not technically seedless, but the soft seeds are edible. This pomegranate variety effectively ended a 2,000-year history of spitting out pomegranate seeds. "The seedless Tunisian pomegranate is a high-end market product. The price is high in comparison with other pomegranate varieties, but so is the product quality. The seedless Tunisian pomegranate is rapidly gaining popularity in the Chinese market. We are also in negotiation with overseas buyers to expand our retail channels. We hope to bring seedless Tunisian pomegranates from Sichuan to an even greater number of customers and spread this delicious fruit in overseas markets," said manager Liu.
For more information:
Liu Wen - Manager
Sichuan B-Fruit Agriculture Co., Ltd.
E-mail: liuwen@b-guo.com
Tel.: +86 18628090302