One of China’s leading fruit importers has described the recent pre-Chinese New Year (CNY) sales period as “a total disaster”, pointing out that the market simply could not cope with the influx of product that arrived at the eleventh hour.

Rod Hill, now handling imports for major Chinese fruit distributor Golden Wing Mau, said there were a number of contributing factors that conspired to cause a bottleneck.

“Firstly, Chinese New Year fell was early this year. Secondly, the cherry season was slightly later, so everybody tried to ship cherries for Chinese New Year. Thirdly, the South African grape season, which was already running late, was further delayed by high winds in Cape Town,” said Hill. “It meant that everything arrived in volume hoping to make the last few days of pre-CNY sales.”

From a logistical point of view, Hill said that the volume was impossible for the market to cope with. “Trucks could not get in, and when they got in they couldn’t get out. There was no floor space in the market, and pallets were left where they were discharged,” he told Asiafruit. “Prices were dropping daily.”

Golden Wing Mau was less exposed to the problems, said Hill, because it had not imported large volumes and had managed to move its fruit, some of it into supermarket programmes. But he warned that the impact was widespread and that many importers were left picking up the pieces. “I’m not sure how many containers didn’t make it but I think there were still a lot in the port, with most of the buyers from northern China having left,” he said. “It’s not a good situation all-round.”

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