After several days of rain, the weather in Guangzhou cleared up. At the same time, the previous urgency around outbreaks of Covid-19 eased up. This is a look back on week 13 in the Guangzhou Import Fruit Wholesale Market.
Import apples
The imported apple market is dominated by green apples and Red Delicious from the USA, and Gala apples from New Zealand. The supply of green apples and Red Delicious from the USA continues all year long, but New Zealand Gala apples only entered the Chinese market last month. Their supply season continues until July. The current price of New Zealand Gala apples is more than 300 yuan [47.32 USD] per box of 18kg.
According to some traders the product movement is regular, but others state that product movement is quite smooth, though less than ideal. In addition, one trader noted that the small but sweet Posy apples from New Zealand continue to sell well, but their supply volume is rather small. (Photo on the right: New Zealand Posy apple)
New Zealand Gala apples (left) and US green apples (right)
The import market for citrus fruit is dominated by Israeli grapefruit, US oranges, Egyptian oranges, and Spanish oranges. The Israeli grapefruit generally enters the market in November and the supply season continues until April in the subsequent year. One trader commented that the grapefruit sells rather well.
Spanish oranges (left) and US oranges (right)
Oranges from the USA generally enter the Chinese market around Chinese Spring Festival [2 February, 2022] and leave around Mid-Autumn Festival [10 September, 2022]. One trader said that the supply volume is rather small, but the quality is good, so the sales conditions are great. Moreover, there s a small peak in sales in the period leading up to Tomb Sweeping Day [5 April, 2022]. Spanish blood oranges only just entered the market. Their supply season continues until September. Since the season is still rather young, the product movement remains somewhat slow.
Israeli grapefruit
Other fruits in the Guangzhou Import Market include the Chilean red grapes that entered a couple of weeks ago and Peruvian black grapes too. There is still a wide variety of Chilean stone fruits available in large volumes, and many traders have these fruits on prominent display. They sell nectarines, European plums, and various Asian plums. As for domestic fruits, this is the season of Chinese oranges and they sell rather well.
As usual, fruit sales showed a small peak in the period leading up to Tomb Sweeping Day. However, the number of market visitors has still not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Tomb Sweeping Day stimulates sales, but the impact is limited.