China spent over US$10 billion importing fruit in 2020

According to statistics of China’s customs, the value of China’s fruit imports reached US$ 10.26 billion for the first time in 2020, marking an increase of 8 per cent compared with that of 2019. However, in terms of volume, it imported only 6.3 million tonnes, marking a decline of 8 per cent compared with that of 2019 due to the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on global supply chains.

The nine main fruits, in terms of import value, were fresh durian, cherries, bananas, mangosteens, fresh grapes, pitahaya, longans, kiwis, and oranges (fresh and dried).

Durians ranked first with a value of US$ 2.3 billion (up 44% over 2019) and a total import volume of  575,000 tons (up 5% over 2019).

Cherries ranked second place with a value of US$ 1,630 million (up 16%) and a volume of  210,000 tons (up 9%).

They were followed by bananas, with US$ 930 million (down 15%) and 1.75 million tons (down 10%).

Thailand was the biggest fruit supplier of China last year, mostly thanks to durian exports from Thailand to China have kept increasing for the last few years.

Among Southeast  Asian countries, Thailand and Malaysia are the two biggest durian suppliers. China imported a large volume of fresh durians from Thailand, accounting for 90 per cent of its total durian imports.

Thanks to factors like population growth, the increase in income and increasing urbanisation, Fruit consumption in China has steadily increased over the past few years.