Yantai apples hit by bumper harvest but poor sales, a whole cartload sells for only 415 yuan

Autumn is the season for the apple harvest, but the current market conditions are giving fruit growers little to celebrate. Reporters have learned that Yantai apple prices have been falling continuously, and growers now face a situation where a bumper harvest does not bring higher income.

 

At present, purchasing of the early-maturing Yantai apple variety Red General has entered its final stage. At an apple purchasing point in Qixia City, the purchase price for 80 mm Red General apples is only 2.5 to 2.6 yuan, nearly 2 yuan lower than last year. Fruit grower Li Yongliang told reporters that although this year's prolonged drought did not affect apple yields, it did affect quality: the apples are generally on the small side, and the proportion of substandard fruit is relatively high. A whole cartload of his apples sold for only 415 yuan, less than one-fifth of last year's amount: "Apples can't fetch a price now, and the costs are too high. The bags cost a lot, and fertilizer costs a lot too. The income now can't even cover this price."

 

Despite the falling prices, the fruit growers still have no choice but to sell their apples. Fruit grower Sun Liqing said: "These apples have too short a storage life. Once picked, they have to be sold right away."

 

Besides quality reasons, the decline in Red General prices is also related to last year's unsold stock of apples sitting in storage. Purchaser Gao Jianmin said that last year, a large number of traders bought up cold-stored Red Fuji apples at high prices, and they still have not sold them all, which has to some extent affected this year's early-maturing apple prices: "Last year's apple purchase prices were too high, and this year most cold storage facilities are losing money. The purchase price for 80 Red Fuji was around 5 yuan last October, and this year it sells for just over 3 yuan. In past years, the stored apples were all sold by July, but this year there are still some left even now, and nobody is buying."

 

The falling prices of the early-maturing Red General apples have left fruit growers and traders taking a wait-and-see attitude toward purchasing this season's Red Fuji apples. Gao Jianmin said: "It's still hard to say how things will go with Red Fuji this year. Purchasing will definitely be more cautious than in previous years."