New Imported Fruit Wholesale Market to be built in Jiaxing

From May 23rd – 25th 2017, the 2nd annual Fresh Produce Forum China was held in Hangzhou, jointly organized by Asia Fruit Logistica and Asianfruit Magainze. Xu Zheng, General Manager of Shanghai’s Huizhan Fruit and Vegetable Market, delivered a keynote speech in which he proudly announced that the cornerstone-laying ceremony for the new ‘HaiGuangXing Fruit Market’ had already taken place on April 12th, 2017 in Jiaxing, northern Zhejiang Province.

This new market was co-founded by Jiaxing Fruit Market, Jiaxing Agricultural Products Trading Center, Guangzhou Jiangnan Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market, and Shanghai Huizhan Fruit and Vegetable Market. It is estimated that HaiGuangXing will open in 2018 and the market is expected to become the most significant fruit market terminal in Eastern China, with Mr. Zheng himself to take up the position of the general manager at HaiGuangXing.

Xu Zheng further elaborated as to why HaiGuangXing is expected to be of importance in the future and gave three main reasons why Jiaxing was chosen as the location for the market. Compared with Shanghai, Jiaxing has a lower cost of living yet still enjoys relatively high living standards. This is a significant advantage for the fruit distribution industry, as high land and living costs act as a bottleneck for the development of both the market and fruit distributors.

Furthermore, Jiaxing is ideally located at the center of the Yangtze River Delta expressway network, affording greater convenience to buyers across Eastern China. The distance from Jiaxing to Shanghai’s port and airport is merely 100 kilometers further than Shanghai’s own Huizhan Market is, and any increases in logistical and distribution costs would be quite limited.
Finally, practical considerations come into play, as it is not easy to build up a brand new market from scratch. Jiaxing Fruit Market has already served as the trading center of Chinese domestic fruits for Eastern China, which has laid a solid foundation for the entrance of HaiGuangXing. In addition, the boundary between imported and domestic fruit is becoming increasingly blurred and it can be beneficial to offer both imported and domestic fruits to traders in a consolidated location.

During the forum, attendees visited this Jiaxing Fruit Market, which remains both a key and popular distribution center for domestic fruit. The Jiaxing Fruit Market was founded in 1992 and covers the whole of Zhejiang Province as well as parts of Jangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Shandong Provinces. HaiGuangXing Market is to be located adjacent to the Jiaxing Fruit Market and will serve as an ideal companion to this market, as its primary focus will be on imported fruit.

At the Jiaxing Fruit Market, imported fruit’s share in the overall fruit market continues to skyrocket. In 2016, total imported fruit volumes at the market increased by 63.6%, with dragon fruit, durian, and longan the largest volume and most consistently-sold items on the market.

You ZhiJiang, the General Manager of Jiaxing Fruit Market, emphasized his hope and belief that HaiGuangXing will become the next Jiangnan wholesale market, or essentially the top-tier and biggest fruit wholesale market in Eastern China.