Cherries sealed in the yard: the owner delayed the delivery of the goods, and it was difficult to do business under the large quantity and low price

At about 10 o'clock in the morning of January 17th, the container full of cherries arrived at the Jiangnan Fruit Wholesale Market in Guangzhou to "open the cabinet" (that is, open the container door for sale), and the "buyers" from all over the country rushed to select the goods.

Recently, many consumers lamented the price reduction of cherries, and even said that they could achieve "cherry freedom". The first financial reporter visited the market and found that not only cherries, but also other high-end fruits such as blueberries are also relatively low.

According to a number of senior "buyers", the recent sharp drop in cherry prices is mainly related to the large increase in supply caused by the concentration of containers in Hong Kong. However, the "buyers" reported that the current purchase volume and pace have declined.

"Buyer" Lao Wei said that he feels that the number of cherries consumers this year is much smaller than in previous years. He is the head of purchasing for a fruit chain in South China, specializing in cherry procurement, which has dozens of chain fruit stores in South China. According to him, due to poor sales in the downstream market, the turnover of dozens of the company's stores will decline year-on-year in 2023, and the purchase volume of cherries will also decline.

Lao Wei said that as far as he knows, the "overall volume of cherries is still okay", but "most of the cherries in the market are sold by e-commerce and platform anchors, and offline (fruit sales) channels may not be much gone." ”

In Lao Wei's opinion, in fact, the price of cherries this year is not much different from previous years. "It is estimated that there will not be much price reduction before the Spring Festival. ”

Arrive at the port and get together

On January 16, the German Hapag-Lloyd Line Line (HLC) VALLANT, carrying 586 containers of refrigerated containers Chilean cherries, docked at the Nansha Phase II terminal of Guangzhou Port. This is the fifth cherry container ship docked at Guangzhou Port in the nearly one month since the start of the 2023/2024 season of Chilean shipping cherries.

The cherries that have been cleared at Nansha Port are sent to all parts of the country by container trailers, while a large part of them are transported to the Jiangnan Fruit Wholesale Market in Guangzhou, which is about an hour's drive from the port, which is one of the largest fruit wholesale markets in South China and even in the country.

Lao Wei said that when cherries were first listed in November last year, they were generally flown from Chile, with high cost and small quantity, and the price was naturally very high, and in mid-January, cherry trading has entered a peak period, and the price has also entered a stable period from a sharp decline in the early stage.

According to Lao Wei, the price of "good goods" in the current market is still strong and has not fallen, mainly due to the sweeping of goods by e-commerce platform companies and big anchors, "Some of them are hundreds of cabinets swept together, which makes it difficult for us buyers to find good goods." ”

In the view of many traders in the Jiangnan fruit wholesale market, the main reason for the continuous decline in the price of cherries in the market is that fresh goods are concentrated in Hong Kong, and it is difficult to digest so much at one time in the market.

Taking Guangzhou Port, which ranks among the top three in the country in terms of cherry arrivals, as an example, it has become the port with the largest import volume of cherries in Chinese mainland, and its cherry imports have increased by nearly 300% year-on-year on average. It has attracted well-known global shipping companies including Maersk, COSCO Shipping, Mediterranean Shipping, Evergreen Shipping, Hapag-Lloyd and other well-known global shipping companies to open the "Cheerilee Express" in Nansha.

"The fastest cherry schedule on the market right now is operated by Maersk. From Chile to Nansha port, the sea transportation time is shortened to 21 days, and strive to make fresh cherries more efficient and safer to reach the tables of major supermarkets and citizens in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and serve consumers to realize the freedom of cherries. Guangzhou Port Group told the first financial reporter.

In order to ensure that Chilean cherries arrive in a fresher state to the market, the Nansha Port has once again optimized the customs clearance process and efficiency of cherries this season. "In terms of inspection and customs clearance this year, the efficiency has been greatly improved. On the one hand, the amount of single operation is larger, and on the other hand, it is linked with various units at the port, even if there are more than 2,000 containers of cherries on a single ship, customs clearance can basically be achieved within 24 hours. The above-mentioned Guangzhou Port related person told reporters.

However, this year, after the rapid customs clearance of the cherry heavy container, some shippers are not in a hurry to put the cherries on the market.

"In previous years, after the cherry heavy container arrived at the port for customs clearance, it was basically picked up by customers within 24 hours, but this year, some customers are not in a hurry to pick up the container. A port person in South China told the first financial reporter that some cherries were placed in the yard for two or three days before they came to pick up the goods.

"With the successive pick-up of cargo owners, the number of cherries in the port yard is currently dynamic. According to statistics, as of 2 p.m. on January 17, there were still more than 80 cherries in the heavy container yard that had not been picked up.

Why are there still so many cherries that have not been picked up?" The above-mentioned South China port told reporters that this year, there are also Hong Kong, Shenzhen and other ports in South China have cherry containers into the port, once they arrive at the port, the market is difficult to digest so many cherries, we can only temporarily store in the dock heavy container yard for cold preservation.

In addition, the above-mentioned South China port said that compared with last year, this year's Spring Festival is slightly later, and there are about 20 days before the Spring Festival.

In the current situation that the cherries have not been fully digested, there are several more ships of cherries that are expected to arrive in port. According to a 2023-2024 cherry season shipping schedule of a port in South China obtained by the first financial reporter, four more container ships will arrive at the port before the end of January.

Business is hard

In the cherry sales season of previous years, Lao Wei basically had to purchase three or four boards every day, and ran to the market almost every day, but now he only comes once in two or three days, "like the 9 plates I took yesterday, it will be sold for about 4 days, and the sales speed is much slower than in previous years." ”

Plate is a common name for fruit shipments in the industry, a plate of cherries is about 920 kilograms, generally a 40-foot container can hold 20 plates of cherries, large box packaging is generally 3600 pieces, small box packaging is generally more than 7000 pieces.

Lao Wei told the first financial reporter, "The cycle of fruits is very short, and the fruits that are on the shelves in the wholesale market for two or three or four days, if they can't be sold, they must be sold at a low price, otherwise they will be smashed in their own hands." Cherries, on the other hand, have a shorter shelf life. ”

According to Lao Wang, a cherries buyer from Fujian Province who sells to the second batch (i.e., downstream wholesalers), the company's customers also reported that the sales were not good, "they can't sell, there is no market." If the goods are good and cheap, they can be sold (well)".

In previous years, Lao Wang needed to take thirty or forty plates of cherries every day, and he was not worried about sales. "Now I take about 20 cherries a day, which is a 50% reduction compared with the previous purchase volume, and (downstream wholesaler customers also reflect) cannot be sold in the market. ”

The shrinking demand in the market has also led to the production of "old goods" by sellers, that is, the unsold cherries that have been opened in the previous cabinet and left for sale the next day. This type of goods is called "thrift" in this industry, and there was no such thing as selling "thrift" before.

Ah Hao is the "second generation" of fruit merchants who grew up in the Jiangnan fruit market, and has been selling fruits under the influence of his father since he was a child. On January 16, when the CBN reporter met him, he was opening the cabinet. He said that the cherry business is getting harder and harder, the competition is fierce, and as the market is getting more and more, "the buyers are very picky." ”

On the same day, Ah Hao only opened 1 cabinet, and in the end, there were still 7 plates of cherries left that had not been sold. In desperation, he could only keep the cherries fresh and refrigerated in the container, and wait until the next morning when the cabinet was opened. He said that this was not the case before, and even a few days ago, he could sell 2 cabinets in one day.

In Lao Wei's view, the current market competition is very large, there are more and more cherries in arrival, there is more price competition, the cost of opening the cabinet is getting higher and higher, and there are many people doing it, which will definitely lower the market price.