“The pomelo export season to Europe runs until the end of January. Export to Russia will last until the middle of March. The reason for this difference is that most of the pomelo supply to Europe comes from Pinghe region in Fujian province at the Southeast coast of China. We also pack other regions pomelo for the domestic market and the Russian market until the end of March. Europe is stricter on pesticide controls than is Russia, which restricts the number of growers and regions the pomelo can be sourced from,” explains Avin Wong of Xiamen Bona. “Generally, most of the other regions pomelo sells to the domestic market; only 5% of the crop from these regions are being exported.”

“Exports to Europe have been picking up, and prices have been improving since October. As early as August and the beginning of September, some suppliers started to load large volumes of the first pomelo crop of this season. As a result the price plummeted, leading to many traders losing money for early season loadings. In October and November, few loadings come to Europe. These developments were beneficial to us, as it created room for our export crop. Generally, competition in Europe and on the Holland market is very strong. When it is possible to make some profit, exporters will jump on the opportunity. Germany is our biggest market in Europe. Here we supply retailers directly. We also ship frequently to the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and the UK.”