As a "star" in the fruit industry, the consumption of cherries continues to increase during the Spring Festival, and cherries ** and so on attract attention. It looks like a ruby, refreshing and delicious, with a moderate amount of sweet and sour.
In the cherry consumption season, a large number of cherries appear in fruit stores and e-commerce platforms, ...... 2j, 3j, and 4jThey come in a variety of sizes, colors, and packaging, but they all have one thing in common: they're mostly made in Chile.
In the current fruit shop, Chilean cherries can be said to be the "most valuable" fruit. Since its 40-day sales period coincides with the Chinese New Year, it has become a high-end gift for people to visit relatives and friends during the festival.
According to Red Star News, in mid-January, a box of 5 kg cherries** was 400 yuan, "no one less". But by the end of January, more Chilean cherries arrived in China, and the price of 5 kilograms of cherries had been reduced to 320 yuan. With the price reduction, "Cheerilee Freedom" has also been on the hot search.
Xiaobai, who lives in Santiago, Chile, told Jiupai News that cherries are the cheapest fruit in the local area, and ordinary people can afford to consume them, although Chile is a big fruit exporter, there are not many fruit varieties, bananas are 5 yuan a kilogram, and cherries are the cheapest 57 yuan a kilogram, which is close to banana**. "At the end of November, cherries were just launched in Chile, and they were not cheap, 10 yuan per kilogram. ”
Chilean cherries. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
When Jasy came to Chile, he found that the freedom of cherries could be achieved here, but the restaurant's ** was quite high. "Chile is mainly too expensive for labor, there is no outrageous thing to buy vegetables and sell meat in supermarkets, and it is very expensive to go out to eat and get a haircut," he told Jiupai News, and it costs 7,000 Chilean pesos (about 52 yuan) to eat a fried rice and a dish in a restaurant, and a barbecue for three people is 100,000 Chilean pesos.
In the Chinese market, the main variety of Chilean cherries is Labins. Cherries are generally graded by 2J, 3J, etc., and the larger the number, the bigger and more expensive it is. According to reports, fruit merchants in Kunming, Yunnan Province, said that it is difficult for consumers to distinguish between different grades of cherries, and some wholesalers will rebrand them as shoddy, and some cherries that are sold very cheaply have many small rotten fruits, and consumers should be cautious when buying.
Every year from November to the following year, Chilean cherries are harvested. These "rubies" are picked, sorted, packaged, and transported across the equator to China.
China's main importers of cherries include Chile, New Zealand and Australia. Among them, China accounts for as much as 90% of Chile's cherry exports, far exceeding other countries.
The huge growth potential of the Chinese market has given confidence to the Chilean cherry industry, and many farmers have expanded their planting area, reaching a record 67,570 hectares in 2023. Because cherries are more profitable than apples, many growers cut down their apple trees and plant cherries instead. As a result, the area under Chile's cherry cultivation has increased nearly 18-fold in 22 years.
According to the Chilean Fruit Exporters Association (Frutas de Chile), Chilean cherry exports to China have grown by an average of about 29% annually over the past seven years. The 2023 24 season ended in the fourth week of this year, totaling 3990,000 tonnes of cherries departed from Chile and headed around the world, compared to 41 in the same period of the previous season50,000 tons decreased by 38%。But China's position in the Chilean cherry export market is even stronger, with up to 92% of cherries destined for China.
Chilean fruit market. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
Chilean cherries entered the Chinese market in 2010 with an import value of only US$500,000, and in 2019, China's imports exceeded US$1 billion, an increase of 200 times in ten years. Judging from the import data, in 2018, Chilean cherries surpassed American cherries. In that year, China's total cherry imports reached 1860,000 tons, of which 1630,000 tons came from Chile, accounting for nearly 90%.
According to Chinese customs data, on December 28, 2023, the first COSCO Shipping "Cherry Express" this winter loaded 216 refrigerated containers, totaling nearly 4,536 tons of Chilean cherries, and arrived at Shanghai Yangshan Port.
According to the People**, on January 27, loading 1The 90,000-ton Chilean cherry ship berthed at the Nansha port in Guangzhou, which became the largest import port of Chinese mainland cherries in the 2022-2023 season. In the Chinese mainland market, 1 out of every 2 Chilean cherries is imported from the Nansha port of Guangzhou. Throughout the 2023-2024 season, a total of about 100,000 tonnes of cherries will be imported from this source.
After a large number of fruits arrive from across the ocean, the staff at the port will inspect them to prevent the risk of plant epidemics and food safety hazards. The first three weeks of the Spring Festival are the peak sales season for imported cherries, and with the stabilization of the quality of Chilean production areas, the arrival of cherries has increased, and ** is also declining.
According to the Daily Economic News, when cherries were first listed, they were high because of the small quantity and high cost of air transportation. As production increased, a large number of cherries arrived in China by sea, and logistics and insurance costs decreased, and cherries** continued to decline. In February every year, imported cherries enter the stage of processing tail goods, and fruit merchants will reduce prices as soon as possible in order to avoid not being able to sell them**. From December to February of the following year, the price reduction of cherries shows a cyclical pattern.
"One of our medium-term strategies in China is to increase the frequency and quantity of cherries per person per season for various occasions of purchase," the Chilean Association of Fruit Exporters said. Now, the promotion of Chilean cherries is more focused on real-life scenarios such as three meals a day, casual snacks and holiday gifts, hoping to establish more emotional connections with consumers. ”
Under this strategy, cherries, the "high-end fruit", are entering the lives of Chinese consumers.
Jiupai News reporter Li Muxi.
*: Jiupai News].