The photo taken on September 16 shows the releasing of the report tracking performances of the Xinhua-Fengjie Navel Orange Price Index in the online publishing hall of the 2020 Smart China Expo Online.
BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- A report tracking the performances of the Xinhua-Fengjie Navel Orange Price Index was released at the 2020 Smart China Expo Online, a 3-day event kicked off in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Tuesday.
The report, dedicated to boosting high quality development of China's navel orange industry, was compiled by the Information Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Chongqing Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, China Economic Information Service (CEIS) of Xinhua News Agency and the People's Government of Fengjie County.
By precisely monitoring the prices of navel orange, a landmark farm produce in Fengjie of Chongqing, the report probed into the market regularities for navel orange in China, interpreted international orange trade conditions and China's import and export strategies to foster high quality development.
Since debut of the report-tracked index series in mid December 2019, the Xinhua-Fengjie Navel Orange Purchasing Price Index rose by 12.66 percent by the end of April this year. The Xinhua-Fengjie Navel Orange Wholesale Price Index remained basically flat during the same period when navel orange supplies usually peaked seasonally.
The couple of indexes' performance pointed to the stable development of navel orange industry in Fengjie County and dividends inclination towards the production end in the sector, provided that the county managed to leverage its online sales channels to offset impact from the COVID-19 epidemic-hammered declining domestic prices after China's Spring Festival in late January and the late-coming upward turning point of navel orange prices this year.
Fengjie is an important production area of navel oranges in China, specially for late-maturing navel oranges. Data with Fengjie Navel Orange Industry Development Center showed that as from February 22 when normal delivery was resumed, Fengjie County recorded 298,600 tonnes of navel orange sales by April 20, of which 14.04 percent were made through e-commerce channels, up 32.62 percent year on year.
Thanks to robust international demand, prices of fresh orange and frozen concentrated orange juice kept rising around the world, showed statistics with the official website of the European Union and the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).
Cao Zhanzhong, vice general manager of Xinhua Indices of CEIS deemed that despite the epidemic, global orange demand remained optimistic and orange juice prices may extend the upward trend in the remaining months of this year given the likely early ending of production season in southern hemisphere because of the speeded export there.
As a large orange producing nation, China has seen in recent years increasing demands for orange export alongside the growing industry size.
In the following years, there will be steady international demand for China's orange as releasing of the 2020-2022 action plan for Lancang-Mekong agricultural cooperation and relevant rules allowing China to export fresh citruses to the United States all bring new chances for China's orange export, the report held.
Located in southwest China as a strategic link in the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and Sino-Europe cargo train routes, Chongqing boasts convenient conditions to carry out international orange trade. In the future, Chongqing will add channels for exporting part of its farm produce to Singapore and develop entrepot trade to bring up farm produce transactions with the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). (Edited by Duan Jing with Xinhua Silk Road, duanjing@xinhua.org)
A single purchase
