In recent years, imported mandarins in the Chinese market have mainly come from South Africa, Australia, Peru, Chile and other countries. Throughout this year's imported mandarin season in China, the arrival of Australian and Peruvian mandarins decreased, while the number of South African mandarins increased compared with last year. South African mandarins are one of the main products of Guangzhou QinGuo Import & Export Trading Co. Ltd. Lily Chen and Max Lin, representatives of the company, discussed the situation of South African mandarins this season with Freshplaza.
"The production season of South African mandarins runs from mid-June to the end of September and early October. This season, taking Clemen Gold mandarins as an example, the overall arrival volume has increased by 15% compared with last year, but it has not fully satisfied the market demand. The reason is that the overall quality is stable and the taste is suitable. The second is that the arrival of mandarins from other countries has decreased.”
"Peru's mandarins were in a downturn due to the excessive supplies last year, and this year's arrivals have been greatly reduced. For Australian mandarins, the quality of some harvests has declined due to frequent rainfall in the origin, and shipments have also decreased. Chilean mandarins are mostly in small sizes. The size of South African mandarins is more in line with the preferences of the Chinese market. In addition, the overall quality of South African mandarins this season is stable, so the price and sales are good. This year, the price of South African mandarins has increased by about 30%-40% compared with last year," according to Lily and Max.
The Sweet C South African mandarin operated by Guangzhou Qinguo is the second brand of the Clemen Gold. In order to promote the products, the company held a series of activities in the cooperative fruit stores, including tastings and holding parent-child activities, and filmed branding videos.
The four business segments of Qinguo include direct sourcing at origin, sales (with sales teams in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou), self-owned cold storage and processing plants, self-owned customs declaration (set up in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Hong Kong) and transportation companies.
According to Lily, the self-owned customs declaration company is an advantage for fruit sales: "Our customs declaration company has a white list, and adopts the special mode for customs declaration, which means, our imported fruit can be taxed according to the actual sales, without extra declaration steps. Taking imported cherries as an example, a container can save 10,000-20,000 RMB. At present, only our customs declaration company has operated this mode in China.”
In addition, Lily mentioned that due to the customs declaration being self-operated, the relevant materials can be prepared more fully, and the customs clearance often takes less time.
Guangzhou Qinguo sells a variety of domestic and foreign fruits, the main categories are cherries, citrus, and conference pears. The countries of direct purchase include Chile, Peru, and Argentina. The domestic high-quality fruits it operates include "Artist" Dalian cherries, Orah mandarin, Shine Muscat and so on. Sales channels include wholesale markets, supermarkets, and 2,000 fruit stores.
More information:
Guangzhou Qinguo Import & Export Trading Co. Ltd
Lily Chen
Tel: +86 13824430981
Email: [email protected]
Max Lin
Tel: +86 18312221489
Email: [email protected]