As the saying goes: when the Chinese New Year arrives, the price will increase. No, now the big guys have money in their pockets, and even the sales of imported fruits have improved.

But this will suffer for the fruit farmers in our country. It’s fine if they can’t make money, and they may have to lose money. But now, no one wants domestic fruits sold cheaply, and 12 million tons are drained every year, which is really a pity. Why is it that no one wants local Chinese fruits even at cheap prices? Is there any inevitable reason behind this?

Conflict between imported fruit and domestic fruit

In the past few years, there have been more and more ways to promote slow-moving fruits in the circle of friends. Just after buying apples from Linyi County, the sweet peaches from Liquan are unsalable again. The Heibulin express from Shaanxi has not yet arrived, and the unsalable Gongli pears are crying again. Fruit growers. However, when domestic fruit was slow to sell, the sales of imported fruit increased a lot.

According to the fruit report released by China last year, China imported 7.027 million tons of fruits last year, an increase of 11.5% in comparison. In the ten years since 2012, China's fruit imports have doubled several times. Including durians from Thailand, avocados from the Philippines, bananas from Cambodia, pears from South Africa... In short, the types and quantities of imported fruits are increasing.

On the other hand, looking at the domestic fruit production and sales, China's fruit production will be close to 30,000 tons in 2021, making it the veritable largest fruit producer in the world. Compared with the data ten years ago, the proportion of growth is not high, and the growth rate has not reached the expected level. Moreover, the annual loss of fruit in China exceeds 12 million tons, worth nearly 400 billion yuan.

The most famous fruit unsalable story probably belongs to the apples in Linyi County, Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province. Just in April 2018, news such as "apples are unsalable by 4,000 catties" and "fruit farmers have no choice but to cut down trees" quickly fermented on the Internet and attracted widespread attention from netizens. The certification materials of the official seal make the public worry about the situation of domestic fruits.

However, many people don't understand why even domestically produced fruits cannot be sold, and why imported fruits are still needed?

Now, imported fruits such as Chilean and American cherries, Australian navel oranges, and avocados are flooding our market. Most of the fruits grown by many fruit farmers are sold in the low-end fruit market, and only some of the best quality will compete with imported fruits.

So what is the difference between imported fruit and domestic fruit except that it is more expensive? What is the conflict between the two? Why are the high-quality and cheap domestic fruits all the time inferior to the expensive imported fruits from afar?

This is related to the positioning of the fruit, which needs to grasp the psychological needs of consumers. Now let's take a quick look.

Where did domestic fruits "lose"?

The first point is the quality assurance of imported fruits . Imported fruits must go through strict inspection and quarantine procedures when entering the country, and they must also meet China's plant quarantine requirements when imported. Harmful substances such as heavy metals, pesticide residues, and preservatives are key indicators for fruit farmers. Therefore, relatively speaking, the quality of imported fruits is guaranteed. Domestic consumers who have requirements for fruit quality will also be more inclined to choose imported fruits.

The second point is more focused on boutique sales and branding . Many foreign countries regard fruit as a brand and operate fruit as a commodity with strict standards. The fruit of these brands itself represents a quality and a standard. Over time, many people have recognized this brand and will pay for it.

The third point is the psychological needs of the public. Some Chinese people still have a bit of "cheap but not good" mentality of worshiping foreigners and fawning on foreign countries.

Some fruits themselves are indeed not worth the price, but as long as the word "import" is posted on them, Aunt Abo, who has just become rich, will feel more respectable after eating them, and she will even walk with extra strength and confidence. So it's not a big deal if it's more than ten or twenty. Slowly extended, imported fruits have become "high-priced imported cheap goods" in various supermarkets, and are generally welcomed by the public.

Judging from the current situation, the only advantage of domestic fruit lies in consumers in the mid-end and low-end markets. The consumption market share is relatively large, but the actual profitability is not very ideal.

Because these often rely on relatively low prices to make profits, various merchants will also keep prices to a minimum when shipping and selling fruits, with the idea of ​​small profits but quick turnover.

But the price is very low, and the fruit farmers want to increase their income from the output. This way, more and more fruits are planted, but more and more unsalable fruits have caused a vicious circle of high yields but not good harvests every year.

Fruit farmers plant and produce fruits to make money to support their families, but now that domestic fruits are unsalable, we cannot blindly blame imported fruits. If you want to sell at a good price, you have to find a way out from yourself in the end. If we still follow the rules, it will only make domestic fruits less and less competitive.

Therefore, it is urgent to solve the plight and difficulties of domestic fruit.

How to solve the plight of domestic fruit from a practical perspective?

Pinduoduo, which has been "really fragrant" by everyone in the past two years, is already one of the largest agricultural product uplink platforms in China, including the "Duoduo Orchard" that many people have begun to pay attention to. It can exchange fruits for free. These fruits are directly purchased by Pinduoduo from fruit farmers. Yes, so it indirectly solved the problem of unsalable fruits.

Therefore, the proven form of live broadcasting has also become a tool for poverty alleviation: Taobao launched the "Village Broadcasting" plan in March this year, and pre-sold 30,000 tons of agricultural products in 10 days during Double 11; Platforms such as Yinyin and Watermelon Video help accurate dissemination of agricultural products through live broadcasts, short videos, and small videos, and there is also a "Poverty Alleviation Master Plan" that trains poor farmers to master new media tools.

However, appealing to the media in case of slow sales can only solve temporary difficulties, but it is not a long-term solution.

If you count on everyone to show love after the fruit cannot be sold, the love will be exhausted one day. To solve the actual dilemma of domestic fruit, we still have to start from planting.

It is suggested here that we can start from the following directions:

One is planting in the place of origin, planning from the source.

At present, a major problem in domestic fruit cultivation is that effective information is not obtained in a timely manner and information is not equal. To put it simply, fruit growers don't know what the market is like at all, and they grow what they see other people plant . I don't know much about external information, and I don't meet the purchase price of the fruit merchants, which eventually leads to a decline in the quality of the corresponding fruits, and there is a certain loss.

Therefore, fruit farmers who plant crops should obtain sufficient information sources, comprehensively market conditions and understand market supply and demand information, and carefully consider their choices.

One is market inflow, reducing circulation links and reducing costs.

When fruit flows into the market, the necessary links include fruit picking from the place of origin—purchasers—sales wholesale markets—distributing to specific supermarkets, farmer’s markets and other places. For each additional circulation link, the cost will increase by 5 to 10% . Various taxes and management fees, the cost of distribution accounts for about half of the fruit price.

When the supply of fruit exceeds demand, the price has to be lowered in order to sell it as soon as possible, otherwise there will be slow sales. Therefore, fruit farmers and fruit merchants should open up fruit markets in various places, reduce fruit costs and expand the share of the local fruit market.

The last point is to carry out deep processing of fruits and extend the fruit industry chain.

At present, the scale of the domestic fruit deep processing market is relatively small. Deep processing can increase the value of fruits and prolong the storage period, and save the loss of unsalable fruits to the greatest extent. Now canned fruit, dried fruit, various fruit juices, etc., all mean the value brought by deep processing.

According to the type and quantity of fruit products, it can be processed into products suitable for sale to increase the added value of products. It can also change the shape of fruit and vegetable products with poor commerciality into products, turn waste into treasure, and sell them to increase product value.

In general, challenges and opportunities coexist in the fresh fruit industry. In the competition with imported fruits, China's domestic fruits may not be at a disadvantage. The growth of the fruit consumption market year by year has brought new growth and opportunities to the industry, and the development of e-commerce will be new opportunities for the fruit industry; there are huge opportunities for upgrading in the original planting, distribution, and service links. What we need to do now is to invest more resources, capital, and manpower in the fruit industry, and make the domestic fruit brands better and more refined.