Chinanews.com, Shanghai, January 1 (Ren Xinyue) "This year, 16% of my customers here are here to order cherries, and a customer who just came is going to leave 80 boxes at a time, and I don't have too many left, so I have to go out and look for it later." If you go around the market, the trailer is full of cherries, and the whole market is the most prosperous in the whole market a year ago, and other fruits are sold together. As soon as he finished speaking, Mr. Sheng, an imported fruit wholesaler, welcomed a new customer at his stall, and he apologized to the reporter and turned to the busy transaction.
Fruit wholesalers trading cherries. Photo by Ren Xinyue
The fruit of "cherry" is large and full, with a deep burgundy color, and a more fragrant aroma than ordinary cherries, making it a high-end fruit that can be sold at a good price in the fruit market. This year, affected by the market situation, the expensive fruits of previous years have opened the price reduction mode, after the red face strawberry, cherries have also been on the Weibo hot search because of "price reduction" and "fruit freedom" and other labels, the price of supermarket cherries has been reduced by more than half a month, netizens said that they are finally looking forward to "cherry freedom".
The reporter saw in an offline supermarket in Shanghai that the price of Chilean cherries with a standard weight of 450 grams was 33.9 yuan, and the price of a box of 5kg cherries was 248 yuan, while on a fresh e-commerce platform, cherries were priced more refined according to the difference in the number of "hooks (jumbo)", a box of 2.5kg of 3 hook Chilean cherries was sold at 199 yuan on the platform, and the price of 4 hooks of the same weight was more than doubled.
A box of 5kg of imported cherries. Photo by Ren Xinyue
"Jumbo" refers to the grading unit according to the diameter of the fruit, a single hook of cherries should be between 26 mm and 28 mm in diameter, each additional hook increases the size of 2 mm, the more hooks, the higher the price.
Mr. Sheng believes that the price of cherries this year is "half folded", and although the price of cherries has decreased this year, it is still in line with the laws of the market. "This year, Chile has reduced production, the quality of cherries has decreased compared with previous years, and a large number of cherries have arrived by sea during this period of the year, in order to avoid risks, most businesses choose to ship a large number of goods before the year, and the volume on the market has gone up, and the price will naturally fall. ”
According to the Chilean Association of Fruit Importers and Exporters, the total export volume of Chilean cherries in 2023 was 41,53 tons, of which 36,42 tons were exported to China, accounting for 88% of the total exports.
Most of the cherries in the Chinese market come from Chile, and around New Year's Day is the peak season for Chilean cherries, from New Year's Day to the Spring Festival, in nearly a month, Chilean cherries will go through the low-cost "shipping" channel, enter China in large quantities, and provide consumers with a window period to realize "cherry freedom".
Shanghai Huizhan Fruit and Vegetable Market is the largest imported fruit wholesale market in East China, from now until the eve of the Spring Festival, Huizhan Fruit and Vegetable Market has entered the peak sales period of the year, with about 2400,80 tons of imported fruits being wholesaled to all parts of the country every day. Chilean cherries, Thai durians, Yunnan blueberries, Japanese sunny kings....... Among the popular imported fruit categories in the market, cherries are the best-selling, with an average of 100 to <> containers of cherries sold every day, firmly sitting on the throne of "sales crown".
Shanghai Huizhan Fruit and Vegetable Market, the largest wholesale market for imported fruits in East China. Photo by Ren Xinyue
Early in the morning, Ms. Liu and her friends drove to the market, and after a selection and comparison, Ms. Liu bought a large box of 150-hook cherries at a price of 3 yuan. Ms. Liu told reporters that taking advantage of the recent low price of cherries, she seized the time to purchase some New Year's goods, and the color of cherries was fiery red, which also made a good omen for the New Year. (ENDS)