Chinese Pears Hit Brazilian Shelves for First Time

According to the latest news, Chinese pears have already hit the shelves in Brazil following their first ever shipment to South America. In early 2020, China’s General Administration of Customs announced that Chinese pears meeting the relevant requirements had been approved for export to Brazil starting Jan. 6. According to the announcement, pears permitted for export must originate from producing regions north of 33° latitude that are unaffected by the oriental fruit fly.

The pears in this first shipment were exported by Dongfang Fruit Co. Ltd. (河北沧州东方果品有限公司), which held a grand ceremony on Jan. 14 to celebrate the upcoming Brazilian debut of Chinese pears. The shipment consisted of 32.4 tons of pears with a value of $40,000 and took 35 days by sea to reach the Port of Santos in Brazil. After a further two weeks of entry inspection and quarantine, the pears were finally made available to Brazilian consumers.

Guo Zhongtao, general manager of Dongfang Fruit, told Produce Report that four classic Asian pear varieties, namely, Shingo pears (新高梨), Hosui pears (丰水梨), Ya pears (鸭梨) and Huangguan pears (皇冠梨), were included in this shipment. He further explained that, as this was a trial shipment intended to test the waters, the export of multiple pear varieties should help his company develop an insight into the preferences of Brazilian consumers and plan future shipments accordingly.

The Brazilian importer also reported good market performance for these pears. Although the profit margins were somewhat compressed owing to Brazil’s economic slowdown and currency depreciation resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, the Chinese pears got off to a good start, convincing many retailers to regard Chinese pears as a good choice to enrich their fruit selections.

China is the world’s largest pear exporter, with Southeast Asian countries being the predominant overseas markets for Chinese pears. In 2019, China exported 470,000 tons of pears with a total value of $570 million. The main export destinations were Vietnam (100,000 tons), Indonesia (156,000 tons), Thailand (47,000 tons), Malaysia (30,000 tons) and Hong Kong (30,000 tons). Statistics reveal that in 2018, Brazil was the world’s fourth-largest importer of pears after Russia, the EU and Belarus, with an import volume of approximately 158,000 tons, which accounted for 9% of the global total. Moreover, Brazil’s pear import volume witnessed steady growth from 2016 to 2018. All of these facts make Brazil an attractive destination for Chinese pears.

For more information, please contact Guo Zhongtao, general manager of Dongfang Fruit, by email at df-fruit@btdfgp.com or cellphone at +86 188 3170-0996.

Images: Dongfang Fruit Co. Ltd.

This article was translated from Chinese. Read the original article.