The avocados from across the globe are conquering the Chinese market at a rapid pace thanks to their considerably reduced price and to a better understanding of their nutritional value by consumers.
According to customs statistics, fresh fruit exports to China increased 22.8 percent over the year and amounted to 3.3 million tons last year. Avocado imports, in particular from Mexico, grew by 376 percent.
Mexican avocados got permission to enter the Chinese market in 2005, but consumption of this fruit has just begun to grow in recent years as China's middle class has started to pay more attention to their diet and has recognized the avocado as a healthy ingredient rich in vitamins.
According to industry figures, China only imported 37 tons of this fruit in 2011, an amount that, starting that year, has maintained an annual growth rate exceeding 300 percent.
According to a report in China Daily, China imported $8.35 million dollars worth of Mexican avocado in 2014, 351 percent more than in the previous year.
This trend continues with the development of electronic commerce in China, which allows making orders of fruit to be imported in advance. Only during the first quarter of this year, Chinese companies imported 2,600 tons of Mexican avocado, worth US $5.5 million, i.e. 486 percent more than in the same period of 2014.
Last September, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China signed an agreement with the agricultural and livestock authority of Chile to grant that country permission to enter its avocados into the vast Chinese consumer market, comprised by over 1,300 million people.
Similarly, the ambassador of Peru in China, Juan Carlos Capuñay, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview that Peru would start sending their highest quality avocado to the Chinese market this year.
Apart from avocados, other foreign fruits, such as bananas from the Philippines, Vietnam Guarani, grapes, apples and Chilean blueberries, cherries from Chile and the United States, oranges from South Africa and Australia, and kiwis from New Zealand, among others, have registered rising export volumes to China.
On the other hand, national distributors of these goods who, despite the difficulties of transporting and preserving the fruits' freshness, are gaining strong popularity have determined a new strategy to introduce them in secondary cities through more extensive and varied sales channels.
Just as with avocado, what was once an exotic flavour available exclusively on luxury hotels or specialized markets in metropolises like Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou, is now becoming more common in the provincial capitals of central and northeast China, and the distribution map continues to expand.
Several industry sources are optimistic about the expectations of foreign import and distribution of fruit in China, as continued growth for the coming years is expected.
"The demand for avocados will continue to increase and it will reach double-digit growth rates in the next two years," predicted Jim Provost, vice president of the North American supplier of Lantao, a fruit import company based in China.
