The lunar year of 2019, a bleak year for most farmers in China, is coming to an end. Many varieties of produce saw the strange phenomenon of “good yields but no good earnings”. Not only did prices fall sharply, but slow sales also led farmers to lose their money.
Facing both low prices and slow sales, many farmers fell into the despair of losses in 2019, and this has not changed with the passing of the lunar year, but rather intensified. Recently, bad international news for Chinese farmers reached them - Russia started to restrict Chinese citrus imports from January 6.
Russia's restriction is definitely a calamity for Chinese farmers, as the country is a large buyer, with the yearly purchase of 180,000 tons.
At present, various citrus varieties are flooding into the market in China and many have shown a slow-selling tendency. For example, the shatang mandarin, a variety that’s been popular for many years and once fetched the farm gate price of as high as 5 yuan per half a kilo, is now only sold at 3 yuan/half a kilo in the consumer market and a little over 1 yuan at the farm, even though it is not yet available in large volumes. Compared with the peaks, its prices are 3 times lower. It is, therefore, foreseeable that with the restriction of export and sharp increase in production, prices will drop even further.
Source: Guoye Quanzi