Cherry sales up as infection worries ease

Ding Yining / SHINE

Sales of imported cherries have rebounded amid price cuts as worries over positive coronavirus test results have gradually eased.  

 Alibaba's Freshippo said on Wednesday that average daily sales had doubled and at several Shanghai, Chengdu and Nanjing stores cherries were already out of stock. 

Fresh food supermarkets such as Freshippo, Metro and Walmart are showing nucleic acid test reports alongside each batch of imported cherries. 

Huang Xiangrui at online fruit vendor Wuxing Fruit said orders had increased more than 1.3 times after more big packs and gift packs become available.

At RT Mart, the price of 5 kilograms of JJ-level cherries had dropped from 350 yuan (US$52.23) last year to 199 yuan.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Wuxi’s Liangxi District in neighboring Jiangsu Province said earlier this month that the surface of imported cherries produced on December 18 had tested positive for COVID-19 during a routine check.

Tests on 199 samples from the related environment, objects and personnel all had negative results.  

Shanghai resident Sophia Xu said she had been keeping an eye on promotions on websites such as JD and Miss Fresh.  

"It's a peak season for imported cherries and all I have to do is to wash the fruit more carefully. There's very limited risk if we take enough precautions," she said. 

Exports of fresh Chilean cherries are expected to increase by 38 percent to 316,184 tons, according to the Chilean Cherry Committee, with the majority of cherries are destined for China. 

Chilean officials have been promoting the fruit in China.

Charif Christian Carvajal, marketing director for Europe and Asia at the Chilean Fruit Exporters Association, said: "Chilean cherries are not only a good choice  of gift for Chinese New Year, but are also a very healthy fruit, and collaboration with on-demand platforms allow our delicious cherries to bring health and happiness to more consumers in China." 

In a joint promotion with JD Daojia and the Chilean Exporters Association, and several other major supermarket chains, sales of Chilean cherries have risen by 133 percent from a week ago.

Fan Zhihong, deputy director of the Chinese Nutrition Society and associate professor at the College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering of China Agricultural University, wrote in a WeChat post that compared with consumers, logistics staff are much riskier. 

"There has been no report to date of a confirmed case due to consuming imported food," she said. 

She advised shoppers to maintain good personal hygiene habits such as hand-washing and proper disposal of packaging.