Season’s First Shipments of Jingold’s Italian Kiwis Arrive in China

This season’s first container of Jingold’s yellow-fleshed kiwifruit from Italy arrived in China at the beginning of December and was followed closely by the first shipment of Jingold’s green-fleshed kiwifruit, which hit the Chinese market mid-month. These shipments from Jingold were reportedly the first batches of imported yellow- and green-fleshed kiwifruit to arrive in China from Europe this season. So far, the fruit has been received with great enthusiasm on the Chinese market, with both varieties selling out no sooner than the containers were opened. This is a good indication of the degree of brand recognition that Jingold’s kiwifruit has earned in China.

Italian kiwifruit growers have faced considerable challenges this season. Green kiwifruit production has been affected by damage due to frost and an unidentified pest, which severely impacted production volumes; overall production is forecast to be 4% lower than last year and 20% lower compared to three years ago. Meanwhile, Italy is witnessing a bumper harvest of yellow-fleshed kiwifruit owing to expansion of the orchard area over the past few years, with a projected total production volume this season of 80,000 tons, representing a 35% increase over last year. On another note, fruits rich in vitamin C have been in hot demand among consumers during the coronavirus pandemic, causing a rapid depletion in kiwifruit stocks in warehouses throughout Europe. Despite the high demand for Italian kiwifruit, Jingold China manager Xu Binghui told Produce Report that Jingold will continue to support the Chinese market and maintain a steady supply of fruit to China.

The two main kiwifruit varieties that Jingold exports to the Chinese market are the yellow-fleshed Jintao (“golden peach”) variety and the green Hayward cultivar. The Jintao variety has a good balance of sweet and tart and a relatively firm texture, making it very well suited to the tastes of Chinese consumers. This year, Jingold has also added two innovative varieties, Boerica and Jingold Plus, to its line-up of green kiwifruit. The former features longer-shaped fruit and a high degree of sweetness, while the latter contains double the vitamin C content. There is reportedly a good chance that Chinese consumers will encounter these two varieties in the near future.

During the pandemic, to guarantee the health and safety of every shipment of kiwifruit dispatched to China, Jingold has been employing strict virus prevention and control measures, requiring staff at every stage of the process, from harvesting to transportation to warehouse management, to take nucleic acid tests. At the packaging facilities, two separate teams work alternately to avoid coming into contact with each other, and the packaged kiwifruit undergo a strict disinfection process before being transferred to the warehouses and loaded into containers, to eliminate any traces of the virus and guarantee that each kiwifruit is safe for consumption. Owing to a number of contributing factors, the sale prices of Jingold’s kiwifruit on the Chinese market have been higher than last year’s.

To satisfy market demand, Jingold has yellow-fleshed kiwifruit orchards in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres, with a total annual output of 20,000 tons. This permits an uninterrupted year-round supply of kiwifruit. In the future, Jingold plans to channel its efforts into organic kiwifruit production and cultivating new premium kiwifruit varieties.

Images: Jingold

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