Fruit Consumption in China—Prices, Sources and Production | Fruit Consumption in China—Prices, Sources and Production

As a Northern hemisphere fruit producer, China’s harvest time overlaps with that in Europe and the US and has been dominating the worldwide fruit market.Prices and sources of fruit in China were examined in supermarkets in Beijing in May 2011 and combined with the official Chinese Agricultural Yearbook to analyse China’s fruit industry: 1. China has become the world’s no 1 for apple (25–30 mil. t), pear (13.5 mil. t) and Citrus (23 mil. t) production based on the Chinese statistical agricultural yearbook (2009), and no. 3 for strawberry (0.65–0.8 mil. t), with an overall fruit production of 105–113 mil. t/year and a tendency to increase domestic fruit production and consumption. 2. Fruit acreages, reported in 2009, were 2 mil. ha for apple, 1 mil. ha for pear (inclu-ding Nashi) and 2 mil. ha for Citrus and 0.083 mil. ha for strawberry totalling 10.7 mil. ha for fruit production in China, with a tendency towards slightly decreasing orchard acreage. The average farm size was £â€‰0.5 ha. 3. Fruit consumption in China was calculated as 18–21 kg apple/head/year, 10.1 kg pear/head/year (incl. Nashi) and 77–81 kg fruit/head/year based on 1.33 billion inhabitants and production data; this is a rise in domestic fruit consumption from 45 kg in 2002/2003 to 77–83 kg fruit/head/year in 2008/2009. 4. Jujube fruit yielded a farm gate price of 1.20 <euro>/kg and cv. ‘Fuji’ apple 0.55 <euro>/kg (5 Yuan) as for most pome and stone fruit (with higher prices in the farm shop), which doubled to 1.10 <euro>/kg after sea export from Qingdao harbour to Rotterdam. 5. Prices for Chinese cv. ‘Fuji’ apples in Beijing supermarkets ranged from <euro> 0.84/kg for a poor class II to <euro> 2.80/kg for class I fruit. Three (‘Red Delicious’, ‘Gala’ and ‘Granny Smith’) out of five apple varieties on sale out-of-season in China’s Capital were imported from the US or Chile, with higher prices ranging from <euro> 3.25 for imported cv. ‘Gala’, 4.15 <euro>/kg for ‘Red Delicious’ to <euro> 4.90 for cv. ‘Granny Smith’. 6. The Chinese viz Asian taste prefers large, juicy and sweet, red or yellow fruit with little acidity and smooth skin viz peel finish. Surprisingly, ‘Granny Smith’ apples were sold as “green apples” without variety name at the highest price of all apple varieties.