The Chinese production season of soft-seed pomegranates officially opened in the middle of August and is currently in full swing. The unique environmental conditions in Chinese pomegranate orchards result in fruit with a high nutritional value. The pomegranates are particularly rich in vitamins and minerals.
This is one of the reasons why pomegranates have become increasingly popular in the Chinese fruit market. The high nutritional value of Chinese soft-seed pomegranates is the perfect match for the increasingly high Chinese market demand for healthy fruit.
Ting from Dexing Fruit Industry explained the situation in the Chinese pomegranate industry as follows: "In addition to superior product quality, another driving force behind Chines soft-seed pomegranate sales is the development of e-commerce. However, there are also negative consequences to this development."
Pomegranates being harvested
Pomegranate orchard
"The sales of soft-seed pomegranates went very well last year. The flourishing trade in soft-seed pomegranates attracted a large number of people to this industry. Unfortunately, some orchards are not managed according to industry standards. Farmers do not pay attention to the norms for purchase prices in production areas or the ripeness of the fruit. Many traders are eager to rush the market ahead of their competitors and so they harvest the pomegranates before the fruit is ripe. The unripe fruit immediately ends up on the market before the flavor is ideal. Consumers lose their trust in the flavor of pomegranates because of these unethical practices. Furthermore, weather conditions complicated this year's pomegranate production. The dry weather this year caused many pomegranates to split. The pomegranate sales suffered from these two developments. The purchase price is still high, but the retail price is low."
Selection of pomegranates
"A small number of careless people ruin the Chinese pomegranate market because they harvest unripe fruits and sell them. These products spoil the consumer's desire for pomegranates. Even when people like us, who continue to value product quality, bring our pomegranates to the market, we find the conditions much worse than last year. The degree of ripeness in pomegranates is more important than in many other types of fruit. The fruit from a single tree should be harvested on 3-4 separate occasions based on how ripe the individual fruit is. People who just combine all the pomegranates from a single tree in a single harvest end up lowering the overall product quality. They ruin the reputation of the pomegranate, which in turn harms other farmers who do pay attention to how ripe the fruit is. The market almost completely collapsed this year, but even though we suffered financial losses, we still work hard to provide the market with top-quality pomegranates. We have our own brand and we can only hope to win the trust of consumers when we persist in the supply of top-quality pomegranates."
Dexing Fruit Industry has a soft-seed pomegranate orchard in Huili, Sichuan. The employees spend a lot of time and effort to guarantee product quality and satisfy consumer demand.
As Ting explained, "We are not anxious about sales. We concentrate on the proper management of plantation and harvest to guarantee product quality. We harvest pomegranates every day and immediately inspect the fruit. All the pomegranates that pass our inspection are labelled "Gold Orchard" to certify their origin. Afterwards the pomegranates are packaged in plastic wrap to keep them fresh during the journey to the customer. Furthermore, we package our pomegranates in a variety ways all based on customer requirements. Our goal is to establish a strong, Chinese fruit brand."
For more information:
Zhang Xiaoyu
Dexing Fruit Industry
Tel.: +86 189 3623 6911
E-mail: [email protected]