A major difference in the apple market from last week is that prices in Northwestern China have been on the decline all week. In particular, the market in Gansu has fallen significantly. This year, we’ve seen very few pricing declines.
Apples from Jingning in Gansu have been marketed at the highest prices across China this year. Their high prices have also driven up the prices of average-grade and B-grade and C-grade fruit. So far, Jingning has entered the mid-to-late purchase season. In the earlier stages, purchasers competed for supply and bid on products with high prices, and growers put large volumes into storage. As a result, there are currently limited quality products in the spot market, only average-grade products. In addition, apples are put into storage around this time each year, before frosts occur. Although apples taste better after frost, traders care more about longer storage lives, which is also the main reason for the price drop.
The popularity of apples this year is mainly a result of the fact that the crop this year is riddled with issues as a result of unfavorable weather conditions including frost, hails, and frequent rainfall in summer and autumn. These have resulted in a decline in quality and scarcity of higher-grade products. It can also be seen from traders completing in purchasing the products and the firm prices that lasted though the later stages of the purchase season in Northwest China that production has taken a serious hit this year.
Another reason is that part of the traders who did not manage to find quality products in Northwest China moved to Shandong to carry out purchasing activities during the National Day. This also propped up prices of products from Shandong. The entire development - traders competing for higher-grade products in the early season to the deadlock between the sellers and the buyers in the mid-season and the later price drop - is also a display of normal market behavior. Despite the lower production, apple is still a fruit with the largest production in China. The main sales channels for apples are still traditional fruit markets.
Source: Fruit Industry Information