The outbreak of Covid-19 in Shanghai has largely been brought under control and the wholesale price of avocados in the Shanghai Market is going up. The price is even higher than around this time last year. One avocado trader in Shanghai Huizhan Wholesale Market recently talked about current conditions in the avocado market.
According to this trader, Guangzhou Jiangnan Wholesale Market is already recovered, but Shanghai Huizhan Wholesale Market is not yet fully recovered. Shanghai still restricts the flow of people in the market, and so the delivery volume is not very large. "Most of the fruit in the market comes from Peru. Fruit was often delayed during the lockdown, but now that the backlog has been cleared, product quality is stabilizing again."
"As for the price, a box of 4kg bags of 20# and 22# avocados si around 110 yuan [16.39 USD]," said the trader. "In the end, the price of avocados is even higher than around this time in previous years. June and July are usually the best months for avocado sales, but the high price has an impact on product movement. There are several reasons for this situation. First, shipping costs are high. Second, many traders redirected their products to Europe and the USA when Shanghai went into lockdown, so the supply volume is rather low. Third, the price of US avocados is always high and pulls the average market price up."
Shipping has been unreliable in recent months and customs procedures add further delays. These conditions are challenging for avocado importers and exporters. "The shipping conditions and customs efficiency are now recovering, and the price of shipping is slowly coming down," said the trader.
The overall surface area devoted to Peruvian Hass avocado plantation has grown in the last few years. The overall surface area expanded by 15% in 2021, which is nearly double the surface area of 2015. Agraria recently reported that the export volume of Peruvian Hass avocados reached 515,000 tons this season, which is a 6.6% increase compared to the 483,000 tons of last season."
Although the Chinese market has huge potential, and the import volume rapidly expanded, the export volume for the Chinese market only counted for 3% of the overall export volume of Peruvian avocados in 2020. In addition to Peru, a growing number of other countries also obtained permission to export avocados to China, including New Zealand, the USA, Kenya, and the Philippines. However, Chile, Peru, and Mexico still dominate the Chinese avocado market.
When asked about market prospects in the next few months, the trader explained: "The Peruvian avocado season lasts until September or October. The product quality is quite stable between June and September. And as the pandemic is gradually brought under control, so does consumer power recover. Conditions seem to be improving, and we will also focus ourselves on promotion of retail in the next few months."