China: 2010 garlic season soon to be under way

The Chinese garlic season is about to begin. The harvest will start two weeks later this season because of snow and low temperatures this spring. Harvesting will start at the end of May. The earliest shipment of 5cm and 5.5cm garlic will be around middle of June while 6.0cm garlic can be shipped around 20th of June.

According to research carried out by Heng Feng Produce Co. Ltd, located Shandong province, the planting area in China increased around 15%.
It is hard to predict the yield at the moment, this depends greatly on the weather in the next two weeks. After the harvesting of the garlic bolt, the garlic bulb in the soil will grow quickly if the weather is warm enough. At present the weather is fine and the temperature is suitable so the new crop of garlic should be of good quality.

There was around 400,000 tons of old garlic crop in cold storage last year when harvesting of the new crop started, but this year the quantity is much less. Mr. Peter Li of HengFeng says, "According our statistics, there is at most 30,000 tons of old crop garlic in cold storage at present."
Last year, the small vendors and speculators earned sudden and huge profits by collecting and storing garlic, which enhance their enthusiasm for storing garlic in this new season. Farmers are expecting higher price for the new crop so they won t sell all garlic so quickly. Moreover there will be a lot of people from other industries participating in the speculation which will stimulate the market. Due to the sky-high prices in the late season of the old crop, foreign customers are all waiting for the new garlic crop to come to the market to place orders.

The price of the new crop will start at a higher level in the beginning because of the above factors. Exporters and packers will be cautious in confirming orders with customers unless they have collected enough garlic in hand. The trend of price will be greatly influenced by the foreign orders in June and July since farmers and speculators both rely on the foreign orders to build up their confidence. Mr. Peter Li concludes.
Contact:
Vivien Li
Hengfeng Fresh Produce Co., Ltd
Tel: +86 530 8275988
Fax: +86 530 8191288
Msn: vivien@hengfengfresh.com
Skype: vivien_09
www.hengfengfresh.com