Banana exports to China experienced a breakout year in 2014, with overall imports up by 142.7%, driven by extremely strong export growth from the Philippines ($555.1 million, a 100.4% increase over 2013) and Ecuador ($185.7 million, an 824.9% increase). 2015 saw decreases in import value of the top three out of four fresh fruit categories, with bananas, durians, and grapes all slightly declining in value. However, these were the only categories out of the top ten which declined in 2015, as 2015 in general was a big-bounce back year for several categories of imported fresh fruit, most notably guavas, mangoes, and mangosteens (-27.7% in 2014, +46.8% in 2015); plums, prune plums, and sloes (-40.7% in 2014, +103% in 2015); and apples, which rebounded from $46.4 million in 2014 to $146.7 million in 2015, an increase of over 215%—in large part due to an easing of varietal and geographic restrictions on apples from the United States.
The rapid and seemingly sustained growth of the cherry in China continued to be a major success story of 2015, as strong growth in cherry imports in 2014 carried over into 2015, with a two-year growth rate of 127.1% over 2013. This was driven by strong export growth from both Chile and the United States. More than 300,000 5kg boxes of cherries from Washington state alone were exported to China in 2014, a 100% increase over the previous year.
