China becoming a greater importer than exporter of fruit

According to Steven Leung, Managing Director of the Hong Kong-based company Alfa fruit Packers, a bu…

According to Steven Leung, Managing Director of the Hong Kong-based company Alfa fruit Packers, a bumper pear crop is expected in China this season. “From what growers estimate, this year’s crop will be at least 20% greater than last year’s,” he affirms. “However, the fruit will also be a bit smaller in size, as there has not been much rain due to the El Niño phenomenon. Some areas, in fact, may already be in pre-severe drought situations.”

Lack of profitability is in fact currently a big problem in the pear market, “Growers are chopping trees down to replace them with apples, and as a result, pears will account for a very small percentage of the sales.”

Apples, in any case, also present problems of their own. In this regard, Mr Leung says he is hoping for lower prices than last year, when many decided to keep the fruit in cold storage and ended up losing a lot of money, since right now only about 50% of the fruit in storage is sellable.

When it comes to exports, he states that many Chinese operators are currently abandoning the shipment, not only of Ya pears, but of all varieties. “It is a sensitive fruit and the risk of it reaching its destination in far from optimal conditions is very high. Consequently, there is an increasingly growing focus on the domestic market.”
While the Russian market potentially offers great opportunities since the introduction of the ban on imports from the EU, last year’s apple prices were too high, so China exported very little. As for pears, he assures that for some reason, they have never been popular in Russia.

In more global terms, Mr Leung believes that “Chinese fruit will have less and less influence on the world market, as the Chinese yuan is so strong and the fruit is becoming more and more expensive. Last year, we exported 5-6% of the total crop, but now perhaps only 1% is being exported. I see China becoming more of an importer than an exporter of fruit. Even Alfa Packers, in the past were 100% focused on exports, will be supplying 50-60% of our total volume in the domestic market.”