In 2015, Chinese fruit industry continued to maintain the trend of rapid development. Its fruit volume reached 275 million tons, an increase of 24.5% over the previous year.
Among these fruit output volumes, apple harvest reached 42.613 million tons, 1.69 million tons more compared with the previous year, or an annual increase of 4.1%.
It should be noted that between 2010 and 2014, its apple production increased from 33.263 million tons to 40.923 million tons. Similar to apples' stable growth trend, other fruit varieties such as bananas, oranges, pears and grapes also keep very good annual growth momentum.
However, with the increasing output volumes of major fruit varieties, the contradiction between supply and consumption was increasing. On the one hand, a serious shortage of supply of high-end fruit can be seen in the market, and imported fruits are taking more and more market shares in China. On the other hand, low quality fruits are facing severe challenges with overstock, and the market is highly saturated, which leads to a very low sales price, followed by the serious damage of fruit growers.
In terms of the import and export market in 2015, China's total fruit exports was 3.043 million tons, an increase of 5.3%, but its export value had a year-on-year increase of 19.5%. Meanwhile, China imported a total of 4.341 million tons of fruit in 2015, an increase of 12%, yet its import cost rose 17%. By comparing the above mentioned two sets of data, it clearly shows that the competitive advantage of fruit has diminished in the international market, while the domestic demand for high quality imported fruits increased.
In terms of the consumption side, Chinese fruits are sold through diversified channels. Firstly the fruit supermarket chains are under very rapid development, such as Garden Fruit and Xianfeng. Secondly, fresh produce e-commerce platforms, such as Yiguo and Miss Fresh are getting more and more important. Thirdly, wechat-led business models start to circulate very quickly in the friend circle. Last but not the last, a lot of fruit grassroots organizations, local industry organizations, and high industry alliances are being formed. To summarize, the Chinese fruit industry is facing unprecedented change and integration phases. When a lot of social investments enter this industry, the leading enterprises began to enter the stage of industrial chain integration and optimization, and general e-commerce platforms buy shares to from fresh produce e-commerce distributors, while at the same time, those enterprises that cannot make changes and integrations will be eliminated from the market.
Speaking of domestic fruit sales prices, the premium quality fruits are always sold at a appealing price level. Taking Chinese pears as one example, between the year of 2015 and 2016, the price of the traditional pear remained at 6-8 Yuan/kilo, while Korla fragrant pears can be sold at a price of 17.4 Yuan/kilo when first listed in the market. As more harvest volumes entered the market, its price decreased a bit, but remained at over 15.4 Yuan/kilo.
Generally speaking, Chinese fruit industry is at a critical transition period, whether it is in the plantation phase or consumption phase, they are all undergoing a lot of changes and integrations from traditional model to a modern model. The whole Chinese fruit industry should take full advantage of this opportunity to adapt to a better development.
