First Half-Year Trade Summary of Fruit Exports/Imports for 2016

How was China’s import and export fruit trade performance in the first half of 2016? Let us check it with a set of the latest statistics.

Compared with the downturn of fruit exports in the same period last year, this year the situation has greatly changed. According to customs statistics, the fruit branch of the China Chamber of Commerce of Foodstuffs and Native Produce declared that the volume and value of exported fruit from China in the first half of 2016 reached 1.344 million tons and 1.85 billion USD, which represent increases of 39% and 36%, respectively.

Specifically, China has still mainly focused on exporting fruit to Southeast Asia and the upward trend in exports is obvious. For example, in the first half of 2016, the export value to Thailand reached 290 million USD and the export volume reached 161 thousand tons, representing large increases of 110% and 103%, respectively. The export performance to Vietnam and Malaysia is also remarkable. The total import amount of these three countries constitutes a 37.5% share of China’s total export amount. The top three exported fruits are apples, oranges, and pears, together taking a 66.5% share of China’s export amount. The export amount for apples grew faster, with 710 million USD export value and 631 thousand tons export volume, which represent increases of 72% and 89%, respectively.

In terms of imports to China, in the first half of 2016, the fruit import amount reached 2.246 million tons and the fruit import value reached 3.16 billion USD, which represent decreases of 9% and 6%, respectively. It is understood by Produce Report that the total value of China’s imported fruit surpassed 5 billion USD for the first time in 2015, which was a 16% increase compared with 2014. For the imported fruit market to achieve better results this year, the second half year will be vital.

Specifically, China’s fruit import amounts from several major fruit exporters in Southeast Asia suffered varying degrees of decline. Compared with the same period last year, the fruit import volume and value from Vietnam have decreased by 16% and 32%, respectively, those from the Philippines have decreased by 15% and 16%, respectively, and those from Thailand have decreased by 4% and 5%, respectively. These are the top three countries that export fruits to China and the fruit import volume from these three countries accounts for a 60% share of China’s total fruit import volume. In terms of varieties, the import value of bananas is the highest among all fruits. Compared with last year, in the first half of 2016, the banana import volume decreased by 26% to 4,760 tons, and the import value decreased by 32% to 330 million USD.