Domestically grown kiwifruit passed off as imported, the most expensive sells for over a hundred yuan per jin

Around the Mid-Autumn Festival, kiwifruit comes fresh onto the market. Reporters recently visited the market and found that the prices of kiwifruit vary greatly, with the cheapest costing only about 3 yuan per jin, while the most expensive reaches over a hundred yuan per jin. Where does such a big price gap come from?

Kiwifruit is very expensive, mostly sold by the piece

1.9 yuan, 2.7 yuan, 3.5 yuan…… Yesterday, in the fruit section of a supermarket in Daxigou, kiwifruit were lined up in a row. But on closer look, the kiwifruit were actually all priced by the “piece”. By calculation, that averages over 7 yuan per jin, and some with good appearance even reach fifty or sixty yuan.

“I bought three, and after removing the small change it came to exactly 20 yuan.” Auntie Tian did the math: the kiwifruit she bought averaged more than 6 yuan each, which works out to over 50 yuan per jin.

But at several fruit stalls in Xuetianwan, Yuzhong District, kiwifruit are mostly sold by the jin. “Local kiwifruit is cheaper; the soft ones are the cheapest, 3.5 yuan per jin, and you can eat them as soon as you get home.” One vendor said the most expensive are the labeled New Zealand kiwifruit, priced at 55 per jin; they are fairly hard and need to be “put together with apples” at home for a few days before they can be eaten.

According to what a Chongqing Morning Post reporter saw at the fruit stalls and supermarkets visited, the current lowest price of kiwifruit is only 3 yuan per jin, while the highest reaches 65 yuan. Sold by the piece, the cheapest is about 1.5 yuan each, while the most expensive sells for nearly 8 yuan each.

Locally grown is cheap, out-of-town is expensive

“Our red-fleshed kiwifruit starts shipping on September 1; for pre-orders, the price is 99 yuan for 5 jin.” A shop owner of a fruit e-commerce business in Jiangbei said they sell kiwifruit from Cangxi, Sichuan, “less than 20 yuan per jin, with home delivery, and it is very popular.” A reporter saw in a physical store that Cangxi red-fleshed kiwifruit sells for an average of about 35 yuan per jin.

Compared with kiwifruit from elsewhere, local kiwifruit is much cheaper. It is understood that Wanzhou, Qianjiang, Wansheng and other places in Chongqing all produce kiwifruit, but the price is not high, just a few yuan per jin.

At a supermarket in Jiaochangkou, a promoter strongly recommended New Zealand-grown kiwifruit, but this kiwifruit, called kiwifruit, is not cheap either: the green-fleshed kind sells for over 60 yuan per jin, and the yellow-fleshed kind sells for nearly 10 yuan each, which works out to nearly a hundred yuan per jin.

Why is there such a big price difference among local, out-of-town and foreign kiwifruit? The vendors explained that it is because of differences in taste and appearance. Locally grown kiwifruit are small and not good in taste, while kiwifruit from Cangxi, Sichuan and Shaanxi and other places have the advantage in both taste and size, and imported kiwifruit sell for a higher price thanks to better flavor.

However, some imported fruit merchants revealed that the New Zealand kiwifruit currently on the market is actually not all imported; many are domestic products draped in gilded outer packaging.