The harvest of the new season's lemons started in early September and has now entered the peak harvesting stage, which is expected to last until the end of December. This year, the weather conditions in Anyue, Sichuan, the main production area, are good. Lemon production has increased by 20%-30% compared with last year, and the quality is also better than last year. At the beginning of the harvest season, the price in the origin was relatively high but has now declined, basically around 6 RMB/kg.
Sichuan Mengtaiyuan Trading Co., Ltd., located in Anyue, Sichuan, is engaged in lemon cultivation, processing and export. Southeast Asia and Russia are the main export markets. Manager Li, the sales manager, introduced the recent lemon export situation, “The current factory price of lemon exports is about 7 RMB/kg, which is basically the same as last year. At present, China has a large export volume to the Indonesian and Philippine markets, while Singapore's recent demand for Chinese lemons is relatively small. Most Malaysian merchants mainly purchase South African lemons."
When talking about the export competitiveness of Chinese lemons this season, Li said that this season, the main competition for Chinese lemon exports to the Southeast Asian market comes from South Africa and Egypt, while the competition for export to the Russian market mainly comes from Turkey. "The overall cost advantage of Turkish and Egyptian lemons is better than that of Chinese lemons, but their disadvantage is that they are highly seasonal and can only have a supply window of a few months. In comparison, Chinese Eureka lemons have a long production season and can be supplied uninterrupted for 12 months throughout the year."
Sichuan Mengtaiyuan Trading Co., Ltd. has its own lemon planting base located in Anyue, Sichuan. 60% of the company's exported products are provided by its own orchards. Another 40% of the products are purchased from cooperative orchards.
In addition to lemons, other export products of the company include Crimson grapes, Shine muscat, Orahmandarin, Orange, and Keitt Mango. The company participated in the Asia Fruit Logistica from September 6th to 8th. "This is the first time we have participated in a large-scale exhibition after the pandemic, and there are many visitors. We are happy to meet new and old customers again."