Why is fruit getting cheaper and cheaper this year?

[Introduction] The weather is getting colder and colder, and the flavor of the New Year is gradually growing stronger. In Northeast China, fruit should be out of season, and in many people's eyes, the price should only be going up and up, especially for some tropical fruits, which have even less reason not to become "luxury goods" in people's eyes.

However, the facts are exactly the opposite. Many Changchun residents feel that fruit is getting cheaper and cheaper as it is sold this winter, and among them are some tropical fruits.

Multiple supermarkets are running promotions on fruit

On the morning of the 27th, at a fruit supermarket near Eurasia Shopping Mall, many residents were on site choosing their favorite fruits.

While choosing fruit, many residents discussed with friends who had come along, saying: "Fruit really is not expensive this year, everything is on special, no need to buy much, just buy what you will eat right away."

We found that some varieties of fruit in this fruit shop were selling for less than many varieties of vegetables. Among them, bananas were on special at 1.98 yuan per jin, mandarin oranges on special at 2.2 yuan per jin, Red Fuji apples on special at 2.8 yuan per jin... Ya pears, grapes, and others were also included, and none of their prices exceeded 2.5 yuan per jin.

Not far from this supermarket, several other fruit supermarkets were also running promotions, and the lowest one had cut the price of bananas to 1.88 yuan per jin.

Near People's Square, some fruit sellers were even selling bananas at 1.5 yuan per jin and Red Fuji apples at 2.5 yuan per jin, and many residents gave a thumbs-up to the low fruit prices.

Merchants and wholesalers: fruit prices are generally cheap this year

Ms. Wang, who has been in the fruit business for many years, told reporters that fruit prices really are very low this year, with bananas and apples the most obvious.

An employee at a chain fruit supermarket said that fruit prices this year never managed to rise. From summer to winter, taking domestic bananas as an example, the price has always hovered between 2 and 2.5 yuan per jin, and now sometimes it is as low as just over one yuan.

Mr. Li has long been engaged in the fruit wholesale business at the Changchun Fruit Center Wholesale Market. In his view, this year the prices of Red Fuji apples and domestic bananas are noticeably cheap.

"These two varieties are about 30% cheaper than at this time last year," Mr. Li said. The wholesale price of Red Fuji apples when bought from farmers can be as low as 1 to 1.5 yuan per jin, and the purchase price of domestic bananas from farmers can be as low as 0.8 to 1.2 yuan per jin. In some local wholesale markets, the price is already at this level, so one can imagine that if goods are bought directly from farmers, the price would be even lower.

The price trend tables for fruit wholesale markets across the country published on this website also confirm Mr. Li's statement.

Reasons for the cheap prices: group purchasing power has declined, and the production capacity of fruit deep-processing plants has declined

So why is fruit so cheap this year?

Some industry insiders analyzed that group purchasing power is declining year by year, and this year it has fallen even more sharply. Second, there are more and more imported fruits, and they are getting cheaper. Taking bananas as an example, in the past the main banana producing areas were Hainan and other places, but now imported fruits from Vietnam, Laos, and other countries keep pouring in, causing a severe impact. And the import prices themselves are not high, which makes domestic ones sell for even less.

In addition, due to the influence of the overall economic environment, some fruit deep-processing manufacturers have shrunk production capacity, resulting in sufficient fruit inventory and weak stocking capacity. Also, many varieties of fruit encountered a "big year" this year, that is, a bumper harvest, and the number of some fruit-producing areas increased, leading to oversupply.

"However, as New Year's Day approaches, fruit prices are expected to gradually rise after more than 10 days," the industry insider said.