Today is the celebration of Chinese New Year. Both volume and demand look to be up this year for two popular fruits associated with Lunar New Year - pomelos and red dragon fruit.
Red dragon fruit represents good luck and fortune thanks to its color.
Tony Ferris of Calgary, Alberta-based Thomas Fresh notes that supplies of pomelos are finishing up out of China. “They’re available year-round from different growing areas but for Chinese New Year we bring them out of Fujian, China,” says Ferris. The fruit is linked with the holiday because it represents bringing good luck.
Supplies of dragon fruit are also available year-round from Vietnam. “We carry yellow and red dragon fruit and yellow are sweeter fruit than the red. But the yellow isn’t as popular during Chinese New Year because of the color,” says Ferris, who notes that red represents good luck and fortune as well.
The increased volume though that was seen on these commodities were mostly to do with securing logistics. “They’re up because of the containers mostly out of China. This year was very difficult to book containers. We had to book in September-October just to guarantee we had them,” says Ferris. “Overall, there was a lot of planning this year—it was a little more of a challenge than other years.” This meant fruit was also purchased in September and brought over slowly to get ready for the push on for Chinese New Year early in 2021.
Vera Lok, import manager for Thomas Fresh (left) with Tony Ferris, sales manager.
Logistics challenges
Meanwhile logistics also helped with demand. “It’s been up for us this year at least 10-15 percent and again it’s because of container space,” says Ferris. “A lot of people who would normally bring it in can’t. Pomelos really saw an increase in demand because it’s citrus and it’s good for you.” He also notes that overall while these types of produce were historically more popular at this time of year in cities with more ethnic populations, more recently demand has spread out more. “It’s almost more mainstream now which is great.”
Demand on the mild-tasting dragon fruit is also more consistent year-round now. “The taste isn’t always there but there are a lot of different uses for it such as in a smoothie or we did a salsa with it this year,” he says.
For Chinese New Year, Thomas Fresh brings pomelos from Fujian, China.
Meanwhile pricing is also consistent and similar to last year. “That’s why we book it all ahead because we can control the price. Usually when you hit Chinese New Year, pricing increases,” says Ferris. “For us, it was the same because we’d locked it in. But for others it cost more because container prices were up this year.”
For more information:
Tony Ferris
Thomas Fresh
Tel: +1 (403) 236 8234 ext. 130
tonyf@thomasfresh.com
http://www.thomasfresh.com/