At the beginning of the new kiwifruit production season, the weather conditions in various production areas this year are good, which means a good year for kiwifruit. The kiwi fruit season officially started in early September, and it is expected that there will be a good performance this season. Mr. Zhang is the head of the Marketing Department in Qifeng Fruit. He shared the production situation and market expectations of kiwifruit this season with Freshplaza.
Mr. Zhang first introduced the situation of the production area, “The early-ripening Cuixiang kiwifruit in Shaanxi began to be harvested in early September, and is now beginning to put up products on a large scale. There was cold weather in early spring, but it did not have any impact on the overall yield and quality, and the unit yield was normal. In terms of price, the ex-factory price of ordinary Cuixiang is about 30-40 RMB/box (with 16-20 fruits in it), which has not changed compared with previous years. At the same time, Qifeng Red Heart Sunshine Fruits from Sichuan origin will also enter into market one after another."
Qifeng Fruit has been exporting since 2010. Up to now, Qifeng kiwifruit has been exported to 26 countries and regions including Canada, Singapore, Dubai, Russia, Chile and Thailand. Last year, Chile began the import of Chinese kiwifruit for the first time.
As one of the first exporters, Qifeng Fruit sent about 1,000 tons of fruit to Chile. "At the time of the epidemic, the inspection and testing procedures for entry and exit were complicated. We were also worried that the time and logistics time would be too long, and the fruit would deteriorate. However, after active cooperation from many parties, the fruit arrived at the port on time, and it was received by local consumers as soon as it went on the market. When talking about the export plan for this season, Mr. Zhang said, “The biggest problem we are currently facing is the shortage of containers caused by the tight global shipping capacity. The freight from Qingdao Port to Santiago Port is normally 10,000 RMB per container. At the end of last year, it has soared to around 160,000 RMB per container. Taking these objective factors into consideration, we will also make appropriate adjustments to our export plan this season.
"At present, Hayward is the most common green heart variety in overseas markets. We are vigorously promoting the two varieties of Cuixiang and Xuxiang, and strive to achieve sales differentiation. Overseas consumers are very concerned about the sugar content of kiwifruit. After continuous improvement of varieties and optimization of planting technology, the sugar content of our Hayward is about 13-14%, while the sugar content of Cuixiang and Xuxiang can reach 16-17%.
"In addition, it is also very important to ensure the ready-to-eat properties of kiwifruit. In order to allow consumers to eat safe and healthy fruit, we are committed to physical ripening technology, abandoning the use of preservatives, and are introducing special cold storage for kiwifruit." Mr. Zhang said.
"Due to the limitations of shelf life and transportation conditions, I think that in the next few years, the output of domestic kiwis will still be mainly green hearts, supplemented by red and yellow hearts. Although the red kiwifruit has received more and more attention from European and American importers, it is not suitable for long-distance transportation due to the limitations of the freshness period. We also reached a preliminary agreement with the base in Chile to bring Qifeng red kiwifruit varieties to Chile and grow them locally."
Qifeng Fruit is located in Mei County, a well-known and advantageous producing area of kiwifruit. The company has been deeply involved in the kiwifruit industry for 24 years. It is engaged in kiwifruit seedling cultivation, planting, purchase, storage, sorting and packaging, product sales, and the production and sales of agricultural materials and fertilizers. In the past two years, Qifeng Fruit has made many innovations in variety, production and packaging.
"In terms of variety, Qifeng No. 1 Green Heart Kiwi is one of our newly developed varieties. Compared with the traditional green fruit, it has higher sweetness and better taste. The focus of brand marketing this year will be on the promotion of this new product. With the launch of Qifeng No. 1, we will also launch high-end products such as Qifeng No. 2 and Qifeng No. 3 in red and yellow hearts. The Qifeng Sunshine Red Fruit, which will be launched in November, is also our latest new variety.
"Our cooperative planting base is located in Sichuan, and the fruit has a very high sweetness after 3,000 hours of precipitation. In terms of packaging, we have made a lot of changes in design, adding flowers and plants to give consumers a sense of vitality. In addition, we will also launch a three-in-one package of "green fruit, yellow fruit, and red fruit" during the National Day for a new experiment," Manager Zhang said.
"In addition, we have also improved and upgraded the plant. Now our base in Mei County has a controlled atmosphere warehouse of 50,000 tons, a standardized production workshop of 20,000 square meters, and MAF RODA packaging lines from France. There are 18 production lines, with a daily sorting capacity of more than 500 tons; it owns more than 200 hectares of organic kiwifruit production."
Qifeng Fruit will participate in the Shanghai International Fruit Expo from October 8-10. When talking about expectations for the exhibition, Mr. Zhang said that the purpose of the exhibition is not to sell goods but to get to know more merchants. This time, they will also bring some new varieties and new packaging to the exhibition to let more consumers become acquainted with Qifeng's new brand image.
For more information:
Qifeng Fruits Co., Ltd.
Zhang Lei
Tel: +86 15591762592
Email: 470363510@qq.com