Chinese kiwifruit exporters can compete on the international market by offering a broad range of high-quality varieties at competitive prices, according to one of the country’s leading suppliers.
“We are not afraid of the other countries,” said Bruce Lu, international trading manager at Qifeng Fruit, a major supplier of kiwifruit based in China’s Shaanxi province. “New Zealand’s golden kiwifruit is better than ours, but our green kiwifruit are better than theirs. We also have red kiwifruit.”
Qifeng Fruit has been selling kiwifruit overseas for around six years. It produces three green varieties – Xuxiang, Cuixiang and Hayward – as well as the yellow-fleshed Jinyan and red-fleshed Hongyang varieties.
According to Lu, the company is building its export business steadily, targeting the period from August to May. It already exports to Thailand, Taiwan and Russia, and recently began sending fruit to Dubai and Malaysia.
Last year, it acquired GlobalGAP certification for the first time, although Lu observes that the standards required by the scheme have been applied at Qifeng “for a long time”.
