April and May are usually the months when the supply volume of frozen blueberries runs out and the new harvest has not yet begun. This year the shortage was already noticeable in March. Domestic demand is likely to grow much stronger next year than it has in recent years.
Manager Zhang regularly trades in frozen blueberries. According to manager Zhang the price fluctuations in this market have generally shown a downward trend in the last few years. Even when traders stockpile for the second half of the season, the price still does not rise. There is no point in paying storage fees or taking out loans, the sales conditions are best during the production season. That is why most frozen blueberry traders do not store their stock until this late in the season.
The market was still alright a few years ago. The supply volume of frozen blueberries was limited and the profit margin great. So traders did not mind whether they sold early in the season or late. Now the profit margin is much reduced and the price unstable, so traders try to sell as early as possible. Traders who can wait until this late in the season generally hope for a better price.
The price fluctuations in the frozen blueberry market, as in other frozen fruit markets, are not great and they generally show a downward trend. Demand remains rather stable. More importantly, farmers lose money when they sell to blueberry processing factories. Only when they are unable to sell their blueberries fresh do they process them into frozen blueberries. There is a lack of activity in this industry. And the frozen blueberries are usually made from blueberries of inferior product quality.
Frozen blueberry import
Domestic demand for frozen blueberries has not increased in the last few years. On the contrary, demand seems to decline. However, the import volume has declined as well. The prices of cultivated Chilean blueberries and wild Chilean blueberries have gone up and their production volumes have shrunk. Moreover, import recently suffered some setbacks. That is why the import volume of frozen blueberries drastically declined.
Blueberry processing factories in China have now turned their attention to domestic blueberries instead. They assumed that the demand volume for frozen blueberries was growing and so the price would rise. However, the overall demand volume is not growing. On the contrary, overall demand is falling. However, the import volume is shrinking even faster, and demand for import blueberries is transferred to domestic blueberries. And that is why the demand for domestic blueberries is rising, and the price as well.
Source: Xili shuishi