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Along with Chinese New Year, the Moon Festival is the other key date on the Asian fresh produce calendar and this year is again looking promising for strong sales across the region.

Also known as the mid-Autumn festival, this year’s celebration falls on 22 September and as John Wang from Lantao Shanghai Great Harvest explained, several product lines are shaping up as star performers.

“Normally at this time of year for imported fruits, the most popular are US Red Globe grapes, US Red Delicious apples, and oranges from South Africa are also popular,” Mr Wang told Fruitnet.com.

Linkage Holdings’ Matthew Tang, a prominent Hong Kong-based importer, elaborated on Mr Wang’s thoughts.

“It usually comes with a big demand for the gift market and local consumption. This event is more like the Thanksgiving holiday in Western society, which promotes the gathering of the whole family. The rally will start 10 days before the festival day,” Mr Tang explained.

Mr Tang said US grapes were usually popular with consumers in the region, but added that their Mexican counterparts were fast gaining acceptance in Asia.

“The big hit will be the new season of US grapes, if they can get here in time, otherwise the current Mexican supply is getting more acceptance. Besides these, the late South African oranges and some Australian mandarins are in a great demand too.”

Traders are being cautious this year with imported fruit for the festival, according to Mr Tang, who said that increased competition from domestic supplies is helping to keep prices stable.

“So far this year, the import fruit market is stable in terms of price and the volumes arriving,” he stated.

“More and more keen competition is being put on the US cherries, and traders are becoming smarter to make a profit rather than overloading themselves to take a larger market share.

“The price stability is also helped by the strong local fruit price and the actual inflation experienced by the consumers here in China.”