The recent news that the Chinese market will open for all U.S. apple varieties from all growing regions will have undoubtedly come as a breath of fresh air for an industry currently trying to market the biggest crop in its history. At www.freshfruitportal.com we spoke to some key industry actors in Washington State to hear their varied reactions to the development, and reveal details of the Washington Apple Commission's press conferences taking place in China this week.

Gala and Granny Smith on the cards

Chelan Fresh Marketing export sales manager Mark Spears welcomed the news that varieties other than Red and Golden Delicious will soon be eligible for export to China with open arms, but cautioned it may be a couple of months before all the details were finalized.

"I think it's great, it's good news for everybody. We were expecting to hear about it but we weren't exactly sure that it would happen as quickly as it did," he said.

"It is my understanding it's going to take about 45 to 60 days to get the rest of the details ironed out, but at that point I do think we'll probably see some Gala and Granny Smith varieties get shipped right away."

Spears said while more varieties would likely be shipped in the future, he believed those two would have the biggest 'short-term impact'.

While another variety grown by Chelan Fresh - Fuji - has gained a strong acceptance in China, Spears said the high local production meant more market planning was needed before the company would begin shipments of the cultivar.

"In China they grow a lot of their own Fuji, so there'll be room for our Fujis but it might take a little bit longer to get that up to speed," he said.

A reserved welcome

A representative of First Fruits Marketing - which is owned by the exclusive grower, packer and marketer of the Opal variety in North America, Broetje Orchards - said his long experience in the industry meant his positive response was tempered by reservation.

"I've been at this business for 35 years so my response is very positive and upbeat - this will be a wonderful time for the United States to gain broad access to China, to the word's largest market - but I'm also just a touch reserved," CEO Keith Matthews said.

"I have been in similar settings over the last numbers of years where we've had a promise that has faltered somewhere in the middle.

"Our own situation is this would be a wonderful market access to start tomorrow, but if there were to be a delay and it pushes out six months my response might be different."

He added the severe congestion present throughout U.S. West Coast ports could pose additional problems to exporters looking to ship any significant volumes to China if the situation is not resolved soon.

With regards to how the Opal apple might perform in China, Matthews said he believed the fruit would be very well received as it fell in line with many Asian consumers' preferences, but Broetje Orchards' limited volumes meant shipments would be small to start off with.

"We're now in the middle of our fourth year of commercial sales of Opal and it's building in volume, but certainly the first three years we've really not had the volume that dictated looking outside of the U.S. and Canada for our business," he said.

"Two years ago we did in fact send 100 boxes or so to a good client in South East Asia and they enjoyed the apple, so I think there's potential down the road to have good acceptance for this fruit."

A potential problem for First Fruits Marketing, however, is that Broetje Orchards does not own any rights to sell the fruit outside of North America.

Matthews said while the company would likely be permitted to sell into Asia for now, if in the future an entity were to buy the regional marketing licence, all sales would have to go through them.

"That would change kind of the dynamics and the pricing structure. So far the volumes have been pretty well constrained, untill this point we've been able to set a fairly firm price through the U.S and Canada," he said.

Good opportunity for all varieties

The head of proprietary variety management company Brandt's Fruit Trees, which stands to benefit from the deal by helping to facilitate the market development of new varieties in China, said the news was very positive for the industry, even though it would likely mean more competition from imported Chinese apples.

"We believe that the opportunities for us outweigh the import threats that come this way. So we welcome it and we'll try to be making inroads as quickly as possible," president Lynnell Brandt said.

"There's a lot of material that's already being shipped, of course in Red Delicious and so forth, and we will be expanding that considerably."

He added the sheer number of potential consumers in China meant that opportunities were by no means limited to only a few varieties.

"We see this as potentially a very dynamic, large market that can be more further developed by having new material and new varietals available on a much longer basis. So I think that the industry here is quite excited about the potential not only today, but about the future."

Chinese consumers' growing purchasing power further improved U.S. exporters' prospects, Brandt said, and the addition of China as an export destination could even boost local apple prices.

"Anytime we can expand markets - and that has to be a primary goal of the industry here - all of that helps in the movement of the crops," he said.

"That can only work to stabilize the price and enhance prices because they won't be under so much pressure as to limitations on movement or changing politics in certain areas.

"It will mean a much more global market and that can only be a positive for us."

Pink Lady America general manager Dr. John Reeves said the branded fruit his group promoted were selling very well in the U.S., but he welcomed the Chinese market opening.

"We we encourage any kind of development of the apple and brand possible, especially when you've got a country the size of China with that growing middle class," he said, when asked about the apple brand that comes from the Cripps Pink variety if it's up to spec.

"They haven't had much trouble moving Pink Lady so I don’t know, so once the final paperwork is done I don't  know how many of them are actually going to go over there because this country is consuming a lot.

"I'm sure there'll be some but I don’t know if it will be enough from a Pink Lady standpoint to affect the Pink Lady market very much."

Washington Apple Commission conferences in China

In the same week of the public announcement that China was opening its doors to all U.S. apple varieties, the Washington Apple Commission has been holding a series of three press conferences throughout the Asian country.

The first one took place yesterday (Jan. 28) in Shanghai, with another one due to take place today in Guangzhou, and the final event in Beijing on Friday.

One key purpose of the conferences is to introduce eight apple varieties to the Chinese market: Pacific Rose, Cripps Pink, Jazz, Sonya, Lady Alice, Envy, Honey Crisp, and Piñata.

The Chinese representative for the Commission, Wang Miao, said he estimated that after market access was finalized, around 400 containers would likely be shipped to China per month.

Miao also said the grower body had cooperation plans with a number of supermarkets and e-commerce platforms, and Washington apples would be on store shelves for the spring season in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Qingdao and Dalian.

He added the Commission had confirmed supermarket partners Carrefour, Beijing Hualian and Wal-Mart.

In the case of Wal-Mart, the multinational retail corporation reportedly said more than 400 of its stores throughout China would be participating in the campaign - not just ones in the six aforementioned cities.

In the e-commerce business, JD.com, Tmall.com and Fruitday.com have been confirmed as partners.

"Fruitday.com and the Washington Apple Commission have been very good partners. We applied for special permission to ship a few boxes those eight new varieties for this conference," Fruitday.com co-founder Loren Zhao said.

Zhao added there were still many administrative procedures to go through before Fruitday.com could begin the importation of U.S. apples, but estimated that in one month's time it would all be finalized.

"We have been promoting Red delicious and Golden delicious on our website, and they are one of the most important products for our Chinese New Year gifts recommendation section," he said.

"Other varieties may not make it for Chinese New Year [on Feb. 19], but they will be vigorously promoted later on as new arrivals depending on the preferences of different consumer groups."

Photo: Toby Hudson, via Wikimedia Commons

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