Chinese Apple Market Part 3

Chinese Apple Market Part 3. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

We have been hearing about how the Chinese apple market has been changing from Todd Fryhover, President of the Washington Apple Commission. He talks about how the U.S. dollar is affecting the export market.

FRYHOVER: (The) weak U.S. dollar - it’s a positive for us. The projection is the dollar will stay weak for some time. That’s a positive for us moving our product over to international markets, it’s cheaper. More consumers can afford it. There’s an inherent description that U.S. products are safe. That is something that has been grown over the last 50 years and we play upon this.

The way the export market has been working has been changing.

FRYHOVER: The other thing that a lot of people don’t really recognize but we definitely feel in our programs is that 3 or 4 years ago we saw a lot of our product being pushed out of markets in south east as Chinese exports were pushing us further and further away from the consumer. That’s changed.

But Fryhover says that with all the positives there are negatives including the number of apples China produces.

FRYHOVER: 1.7-billion cartons of apples in China. China produces 50% of all of the apples in the world. The U.S does not have full varietal access into China. Currently we just enjoy Red and Golden Delicious. All other varieties are contraband and move through the gray market channels.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.