2020 Chinese Regional Fruit Value Rankings Announced, Yantai Apples #1

The regional fruit value rankings for 2020 were recently announced at the sixth annual China Fruit Industry Brand Conference. The list covered 130 Chinese regional fruit varieties, five more than last year, with an overall average value of 2.093 billion Chinese yuan ($310 million). The top three varieties on the list remained the same as in 2019, namely, Yantai apples, Korla fragrant pears and Luochuan apples, with values of 14.505 billion yuan ($2.1 billion), 11.034 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) and 7.42 billion yuan ($1.1 billion), respectively.

The 130 varieties on this year’s list covered all areas of China across 26 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. Over 90% of the varieties considered were valued at less than 5 billion yuan ($740 million).

Pome fruits, especially apples, substantially outperformed the other six major fruit categories considered, reaching an average value of 2.923 billion yuan ($430 million). Berries also exceeded the overall average value at 2.268 billion yuan ($340 million). Melons, nuts, citrus, and lychees and bananas (as a single category) had average values of 1.856 billion yuan ($270 million), 1.810 billion yuan ($270 million), 1.682 billion yuan ($250 million) and 1.788 billion yuan ($260 million), respectively. Drupes had the lowest average value of the six categories, being valued at 1.592 billion yuan ($240 million). It is worth noting that two new subcategories have climbed above the overall average value since 2019.

Despite the fact that citrus production has outpaced apple production this year, the average value of apples has remained far in the lead. Among the top ten varieties in the final ranking, eight are apples. Moreover, apples account for 24 of the 38 pome fruit varieties included in the list, and the average value for apples alone reached 3.692 billion yuan ($550 million). Yantai apples proved particularly outstanding, seizing the number one slot with a value of 14.505 billion yuan ($2.1 billion), almost double that of Luochuan apples, the closest contender. The average values for Luochuan, Yan’an, Xianyang Malan Hong, Qixia, Lingbao, Pingliang and Baishui apples all exceeded 5 billion yuan ($740 million).

In terms of value growth, between 2018 and 2020 citrus witnessed the fastest annual growth rate of 13.90%, followed by nuts at 11.15%, berries at 9.60% and drupes at 9.42%. In contrast, the growth rate for pome fruit such as apples remained relatively sluggish at 5.32%. This reflects the rapid growth of citrus in terms of both growing area and market sales, as well as the recent plateauing of the apple market.

Image: Pixabay

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