"Blueberries are selling for more than a catty", "The price of durian has dived", "The price of cherries in Shandong has been cut in half", "The price of lychees has plummeted", "The price of bayberry has dropped", ...... Following the "Sunshine Rose" grapes, high-priced fruits such as blueberries, durians, and domestic cherries have lined up to be on the hot search due to this year's price reduction, and the popularization of high-end fruits has once again sparked discussions.
The price of high-end fruits has become "close to the people", is it really not fragrant? The reporter recently interviewed the procurement and marketing departments and growers of a number of platforms and learned that the price changes of high-end fruits are related to supply and demand. Domestic cherries have been added to many new producing areas such as Shaanxi and Gansu, and large-scale planting has ushered in new varieties after trial planting; Leading enterprises have embraced new planting technologies, and the yield and quality have been improved. In addition, with the increasing awareness of high-end fruits such as Tunisian soft-seeded pomegranate and domestic cherries on the consumer side, the competition on the sales side is fierce, and the supply chain is further optimized to benefit consumers.
New varieties were planted in new production areas and large-scale planting was started
The price reduction of the "fruit queen" blueberry has quickly become a hot topic on the consumer side. This kind of small box of berries that often cost tens of yuan is usually a fruit placed in the C position in supermarkets and fruit stores, but this year, like "Sunshine Rose" grapes, it has become a drainage item in the promotion.
The reporter learned from the interview that the decline in blueberry prices is related to the rise of domestic production areas. As of 2023, the national blueberry planting area is close to 1.155 million mu, with an output of 525,000 tons. Shandong, Jilin, Liaoning, Guizhou, Yunnan and other provinces have set off a large-scale planting boom. Among them, the blueberry planting area in Yunnan is 176,000 mu, with an output of 105,000 tons, accounting for 20% of the national output.
After nearly 20 years of development, Yunnan has developed into a major blueberry producing area in China. Yunnan has a large temperature difference between morning and evening, long sunshine time, low temperature that blueberries like, and suitable soil pH in central Yunnan, so most blueberry varieties can be cultivated. Yunnan has also become the planting base of international berry giants such as Driscoll's, Joyvio, and Haisheng.
Zhang Weiguo, who has been in the blueberry industry for more than ten years, told reporters that climate is a major advantage of Yunnan's production areas. Thanks to the climate, Yunnan blueberries produce the fastest fruits. The early-maturing varieties can be marketed around December, filling the gap between imported blueberries and blueberries from other domestic producing areas.
On the other hand, the core of blueberries is variety. He mentioned that the planting area in Yunnan has not only increased, but also the new varieties have large fruit shapes, sweet tastes and early market, while other domestic producing areas are still changing varieties. For example, the world's largest fresh berry company grows new varieties developed in collaboration with breeding companies. "We also breed new varieties ourselves and establish multiple bases in Huadu."
Domestic cherries also have a number of new domestic production areas rising. Zhang Tianyu, a procurement and sales staff of an e-commerce platform, said in an interview with reporters that domestic cherries refer to high-end varieties such as Kodia and Regina, and the fruits of the same variety as Chilean cherries are also known as big cherries. In recent years, Tongchuan, Gansu and other places have introduced the above-mentioned high-end varieties, which have been listed on a large scale this year, and the price is only one-fifth of that of Chilean cherries.
Zhang Weiguo believes that the development of new production areas will bring about an increase in output, and the mismatch between output and demand in a certain stage will inevitably lead to price fluctuations. At the same time, the price of new varieties from trial to maturity also brings about a decrease in price, which is the only way for the development of each new variety. "When the technology and varieties are mature, the market will be fully competitive."
Improvement of planting technology Substrate cultivation technology improves the quality of blueberries
The quality and yield of high-end fruits are closely related to the cultivation technology. In the blueberry industry, many brands and plantations use substrate cultivation techniques. Yi Berry entered Yunnan in 2013 and started the berry business. Last year, the total blueberry planting area in Yunnan was about 15,000 hectares. It is understood that the blueberry base of Yi Berry adopts modern planting methods, that is, substrate cultivation, rather than traditional planting in the soil.
The reporter previously visited the "Guangzhou Zhongzhi Agriculture" located in Huadu District and saw that the base gave up open-air planting, adopted the latest substrate cultivation technology, and the blueberries in the greenhouse "eat" imported peat, coconut peat, perlite to form the "soil", and "drink" the customized "nutritious meal" prepared by the computer, supplemented with nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and various trace elements, and produced blueberries with large fruit diameter and sweet taste.
In Tongchuan, Shaanxi, the planting base introduces high-quality sweet cherry varieties from the Czech Republic, Germany, France and other places, adopts the planting mode of lattice cultivation, water and fertilizer integration, as well as standardized post-harvest management, and the whole process of temperature-controlled cold chain supply technology to fill the market gap of late-maturing varieties of large cherries in China.
The decline in the price of high-end fruits is also climate-related. Zhang Tianyu told reporters that the picking period of late-maturing varieties of domestic cherries is only 5-7 days, and the picking can be stored for about 5 days on sunny days, and only one day for rainy picking, which is similar to this year's lychees. During the visit, the reporter noticed that due to excessive rain, the yield of early-maturing lychee varieties such as Feizixiao was not affected, but the output of cinnamon-flavored lychee was very small, and the market price soared.
Drop-to-source shipping reduces costs
Durian, blueberries, domestic cherries and other high-priced fruits have always been popular online and offline. Under the marketing strategy of super large single products, e-commerce and fresh food platforms have increased the promotion of high-end fruits, while going deep into the source, shortening intermediate links, and providing user data for the planting end to guide planting and standardize post-harvest management methods.
According to Zhang Tianyu, his e-commerce platform this year adopted direct delivery from the source, invested a lot of manpower and material resources on the production side, guided the formulation of domestic plantation park standards according to Chilean standards, and absorbed the suggestions of relevant sales channels to finalize the relevant systems in terms of color, sugar content, hardness and other aspects of domestic cherries.
A number of fresh fruit merchants told reporters that under the wave of volume prices on major platforms, a large amount of traffic resources and subsidies have been invested in high-end fruits, and the supply chain has been put together at the source, reducing prices and improving the recognition of domestic high-end fruits.
Source: CCTV
Editor: Sun Yanan
Executive Producer: Bao Zhen
Director: Xie Tian