"The main production areas of the Western plum in China are located in Xinjiang, Shaanxi, and Shandong. The production areas in Xinjiang are mainly located in Peyzivat and the Ili river basin. The flavor of Western plums from Xinjiang is superior to its counterparts from other areas due to the excellent natural environment in Xinjiang, its lack of pollution, and its general geographical and meteorological conditions." This is according to Sales Manager Li Rui of Xinxing Jihua Yili Agricultural Technology Development Co., Ltd.
"Western plums from Xinjiang production areas began to enter the market in September this year. The sales season for most Western plums lasted around one month and was over before Mid-Autumn Festival [24 September 2018] arrived. Our retail season can be extended to 130-150 days through the application of climate-control technology, which means it lasts until February of the subsequent year. In this way, we extend the shelf life of our plums and the period in which we supply plums to the market and to clients."
"The Western plum is actually not a new fruit variety. It has been cultivated in China for many years. The reason that sales went so well this year is due to increased appreciation of consumers for this fruit. Not only does the fruit have an excellent flavor and high nutritional value, it is also useful in improving the quality of people's sleep. This combination is a perfect match with consumer requirements of this fruit."
"We own 2,667 hectares of Western plum plantation in Ili, Xinjiang. 200 hectares consist of fruit-bearing trees. The actual sales volume was around 2,000 tons this year. We estimate that the surface area of fruit-bearing trees will greatly increase in 2019 and the sales volume will reach around 6,000 tons. We sell our Western plums under two international standards, '3288' and '2288'. The sugar content of our plums exceeds 20. We harvest our plums when they have ripened to about 80%, which means that the individual plum is 80% into the process of changing its color. The only difference between '3288' and '2288' is the weight of individual fruit around 30 and 20 grams respectively."
"As for our marketing channels, we use both online and offline sales methods. We sell our plums in first-class wholesale markets such as Xinfadi Wholesale Market in Beijing, Jiaxing Wholesale Market in Zhejiang, and Jiangnan Wholesale Market in Guangzhou. We also sell through such well-known fruit shops as Pagoda and Green Leaf Fruit, as well as large-scale supermarkets. We also sell in bulk to governments and corporations. Our plums are sold throughout China via online retail. In the future, while we steadily develop our current market share, we also hope to expand our online market share and further develop new markets in other areas."
