The Chinese Spring Festival [February 5th, 2019] is long over, but the enthusiasm of buyers in some wholesale fruit markets and consumers in fruit stores remains high. Imported cherries in particular have become the "market leader". The popularity of cherries is widespread and retail continues to expand throughout China. It seems like Chinese consumers have decided to pursue healthy and high-quality fruits.
It is worth noting that data from many retail platforms shows that consumers choose high-quality cherries. L-grade (regular size) and XL-grade (medium size) cherries are being overtaken by J-grade (relatively large size) and JJ-grade (large size) cherries in the Xinfadi Market. Data from Fruitday shows that the number of consumers that bought J-grade cherries last year outnumbered the consumers who bought JJJ-grade (extra large size) cherries 4 to 1, but this year the tables are turned as JJJ-grade consumers outnumber J-grade consumers 3.5 to 1.
Employees from JD confirm this impression. In comparison with 2018, this year consumers prefer JJ-grade cherries, because the quality is better, even though the price is also higher. The most popular cherry among JD customers is the JJJ-grade cherry with the highest grade and the highest price. The JJJ-grade cherries account for nearly 40% of the sales volume.
"Looking at cherry sales we can conclude that cherries have become a common fruit, though still not a staple of the fruit market." This is according to an employee of Pagoda. Many online traders agree with this view, even though they point out that there are still many problems to be solved in the cherry industry, such as the high import price and the cost of refrigerated transport, as well as the high ratio of fruit damaged in transport.
