How to go on the road of domestication of imported fruits?, The price of Herm è s in the grape industry has plummeted

In recent days, topics such as "Sunshine Rose Grape Price Diving" and "Why Sunshine Rose is Getting Cheaper" have become hot topics on the search engine.

The sunshine rose originated in Japan. Due to its low production and good sales, it was once known as the "Herm è s of the grape world". Many years ago, when it entered people's sight, it was sold at a maximum price of 300 yuan per kilogram, but now it is cheap to 10 yuan per kilogram.

Not just sunshine roses. In recent years, consumers have been pleasantly surprised to find that imported fruits such as Chilean cherries, Australian mixed citrus, Tunisian soft seed pomegranates, and French prunes have gradually achieved localization. Even the "King of Fruits" durian, which was successfully planted in Hainan this summer, has been supplied to the market.

After the localization of excellent foreign fruit varieties, the planting scale has rapidly increased, naturally leading to more affordable fruit prices. So, how did "foreign fruits" settle down in China? How can their arrival, while enriching the Chinese fruit basket, quietly change the Chinese fruit industry? How should the domestic fruit industry develop in the future?

Diverse climates provide more possibilities for the path of localization

"Big cherries from Shandong, blueberries from Yunnan, kiwifruit from Shaanxi, and prunes from Xinjiang..." Nowadays, when talking about fruit categories, Xiao C, who loves to eat fruits, always adds a prominent Chinese place name in front of them.

China is the world's largest producer and consumer of fruits, with a total national fruit production of nearly 300 million tons and a per capita share of over 200 kilograms. With the current socio-economic development, Chinese people's consumption of fruits is also shifting from focusing on quantity growth to focusing on quality and taste.

The huge consumer demand and market prospects have made many growers eager to try.

When it comes to the "ancestor" of imported fruits, it is now the most common red Fuji apple. In the 1980s, China imported Fuji apples from Japan. Of course, it is not just a single variety, but a collective term for the colored Fuji apples selected from ordinary Fuji apple sprouts, and can also be said to be a family. In recent years, after being cultivated by domestic agricultural technology experts on the basis of introduction, the variety has also been significantly different from the original introduction.

The Fuji variety can be widely planted in most regions of China and has become the largest main variety, thanks to China's diverse climate characteristics. China spans a wide range of latitudes from north to south, spanning cold, temperate, and tropical regions, which provides more possibilities for the domestic production of most imported fruits.

Like Fuji Apple, Sunshine Rose Grape has also achieved large-scale cultivation in China since its introduction in 2015. Many fruit farmers have abandoned other varieties and switched to planting sunshine roses, rapidly expanding their planting scale.

"Unlike other fruits that require more temperature and latitude, grapes can be planted in many places." Ye Minger, director of the Agricultural Cultural Heritage Research Center at Zhejiang University and an expert in the field of fruit trees, admitted that with the application of advanced technologies and models such as rain shelter cultivation, greenhouse facilities, and integrated water and fertilizer, the path of "foreign fruits" is becoming smoother.

Everyone is familiar with the historical allusion that "if an orange is born in Huainan, it is called an orange, and if it is born in Huaibei, it is called an orange". But now, agricultural technology personnel have created a suitable growth environment for fruits by changing the microclimate, making many impossible things possible. The "Red Beauty" citrus has taken root in the Hangjiahu Plain, breaking the "curse" of Huzhou's inability to produce high-quality citrus; The first batch of domestically produced durians in Hainan has been launched, breaking the impression that China cannot grow durians for many years.

"Red Beauty" Citrus

As prices decline, the taste also experiences a "Waterloo"

With the large-scale cultivation of imported fruits, problems have also arisen.

He Wei, who has been engaged in fruit wholesale business in Hucheng for more than 20 years, is no longer surprised by the continuous decline in the price of Sunshine Rose and its rise to hot search. He said that sunshine roses are not an exception. After the localization of many high-quality fruits, the supply has rapidly increased and prices have become increasingly affordable. "Previously, cherries cost over a hundred yuan per kilogram, but now they have dropped to 10 yuan per kilogram. Blueberries, plums, and soft seed pomegranates all have the same situation." In He Wei's view, regardless of the variety with high profits, fruit farmers will follow the trend of planting, and the popularization of high-quality fruits is a trend.

"Over the years, we have been growing grape varieties that are constantly changing with market changes," said Shen Liping, the person in charge of the Nanxun Cai Haihua Family Farm Base. From the summer black and red varieties planted at the beginning of our entrepreneurship in 2010 to the sunshine roses in 2019, the varieties have gone through many rounds of changes.

Like Shen Liping, fruit farmers from all over the country have joined the bureau to plant sunshine roses in order to get a share of the pie. "Just around our base, planting sunshine roses has increased by over 1000 acres in the past two years." In Shen Liping's view, as the planting area has increased, the price decline is inevitable.

With a significant drop in prices, consumers have found that the taste has also experienced a "Waterloo". Industry insiders say that this phenomenon is related to some growers excessively expanding their scale.

There are those who pursue economic benefits unilaterally, while there are those who have always adhered to the boutique route. "We have been continuously updating our facilities and equipment in recent years, investing at least 2 million yuan annually to improve soil quality and quality control." Shen Liping's Sunshine Rose won the "Gold Award" in a recent provincial grape competition, with a price basically maintained at 25 yuan per kilogram, achieving "good planting and good sales".

But with the overall market prices generally falling, Shen Liping couldn't help but worry that if quality declines and prices further decrease, it will fall into a vicious cycle.

For consumers, sunshine roses are a category, a whole, and may overlook the differentiated development of different growers and planting enterprises. Once there is an impression that "sunshine roses are no longer delicious", it will involve the entire category. Similar incidents have occurred with the grape "Summer Black".

Behind this lies the dilemma of many fruits having categories but no brands. Fortunately, the country has taken action. Last year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued the "Implementation Plan for Building Agricultural Brands", proposing to focus on cultivating 300 regional public brands of high-quality agricultural products by 2025, driving 1000 core enterprise brands and 3000 high-quality agricultural product brands, and emphasizing the need to strengthen brand culture empowerment.

Domestic fruits play the leading role, and breeding is crucial

The once "imported products" are constantly moving from high-end to affordable, which is a good thing for consumers.

But to make domestic fruits play the leading role well, there is still a battle to be fought in the future.

"What is important now is to accelerate the pace of fruit breeding." Ye Minger pointed out that although there have been breakthroughs in breeding fruit varieties in China in recent years, there are still many imported varieties that will face risks such as intellectual property infringement and claims for compensation.

Previously, there were many cases of lawsuits for planting and selling unauthorized fruit varieties from abroad. A professional cooperative for planting and breeding in Dengzhou City, Henan Province, was awarded a compensation of 300000 yuan for planting 100 acres of "Sucui No.1" pear; Not long ago, IFG in the United States sued Yunnan for infringement of "Sapphire Grapes", and the infringer was fined heavily and required to remove and destroy all remaining infringing plants and breeding materials... In recent years, the fruit "seed war" has become increasingly fierce, and countries including Japan and New Zealand have attached greater importance to intellectual property protection of seeds and implemented relevant legislation.

"This is a kind of pressure on China's fruit industry," Ye Minger said. For example, 'Red Beauty' citrus and Sunshine Rose are both imported from Japan. Although the intellectual property protection period for these varieties has expired, there are still risks for new varieties. The best way is to strengthen research and development, firmly holding fruit seeds in one's own hands.

In fact, as early as 2021, in the No. 1 central document, it was clearly pointed out that "it is necessary to carry out technical research on seed source choking and be determined to fight a turnaround battle in seed industry". The first document of the following two years emphasized the issue of seeds, and the length was expanded.

Seeds are the "chips of agriculture", and it is not easy to overcome the bottleneck technical difficulties of seed sources.

"Generally speaking, the breeding cycle is relatively long, and we cannot only focus on short-term benefits." Ye Minger admitted that the current assessment and evaluation system for scientific researchers still needs to be sound, and the collaboration between scientific research institutions needs to be strengthened. In addition, the protection of intellectual property rights also needs to keep up.

In March last year, with the official implementation of the newly revised Seed Law, there was a significant upgrade in the protection of intellectual property rights related to seed industry innovation, including the establishment of a substantive derivative variety system, expansion of protection scope, extension of protection chain, increased punishment, improvement of infringement compensation system, and strengthening of germplasm resource protection. For many agricultural researchers, this will be a reassuring pill.

Strengthening independent breeding of varieties is not only based on the present, but also oriented towards the future. We look forward to domestic fruits adding some sweetness to the lives of the Chinese people.