The problem with shortages of shipping containers has greatly improved, but the shipping costs remains high, while the price of onions continues to rise as demand grows. The garlic market remains stable. For a number of reasons several markets increased their import volume of frozen onion chunks and garlic pieces to substitute for fresh onions and garlic.
Jining Shangzhuo Food Co., Ltd. is a specialized producer and exporter of frozen food products. The company supplies frozen onion chunks, frozen garlic cloves, and frozen ginger chunks. A spokesperson for the company recently talked about current market conditions.
Manager Wang explained that East Asian market demand for onions rapidly increased in the last few weeks. The supply volume is insufficient, so the price goes up. The current price of yellow onions is 35% higher than around this time last year. The high price puts the export market under pressure.
The markets in Korea and Japan experienced a supply shortage in the last few weeks. They have increased their import volume of yellow onions from China, but now the price of Chinese yellow onions remains high and will not come down. Processing facilities in Shandong have increased production by 20-30 containers per week. The price has gone up by 35%. Other markets have difficulty handling this price and export to these markets has slowed down.
Many overseas importers are apprehensive because of the high price. They turn instead to frozen onion products. Processing facilities often cut up top-quality onions because their appearance is less than ideal. The shelf life of frozen onions is much longer and the price fluctuations of frozen onions are therefore much smaller. Some restaurants have recently switched to frozen onion products to substitute for fresh onions.
In addition to onion chunks, Shangzhuo Food also exports frozen garlic cloves and frozen ginger chunks. Garlic is no longer just a vegetable, but has turned into a speculative market product. Traders freely speculate on the garlic market, and price fluctuations are huge. That is why many importers turn to frozen garlic instead. The price fluctuations are smaller in the frozen garlic market. Shangzhuo Food mainly supplies to the markets in Europe and the United Kingdom. They expect the market demand to remain stable in the next few months.
Garlic production areas in Shandong are expected to start supplying the market with large volumes around June 10. The overall surface area devoted to garlic plantation slightly declined, but the weather conditions were favorable this year. The production volume per hectare is expected to make up to some extent for the slight decline in overall surface area. This month the weather turned cold. Some of the garlic seedlings suffered frost damage. The price subsequently increased. It is still unclear whether garlic traders will be eager or hesitant to sell. Their attitude will affect the price fluctuation.
Jining Shangzhuo Food is specialized in garlic, ginger, and onion export. The company has an annual export volume of more than 2,000 shipping containers.
For more information:
Wang Junjie
Jining Shangzhuo Food Co., Ltd.
WhatsApp: +8613213293300
WhatsApp: +8619954240999
E-mail: wangjunjie@shangzhuofood.com