Production Quadrupled But Sold Out Early, And It Is Said That The Gap In The Market For This Late-Night Novelty Will Last For At Least Five Years

While the Year of the Dragon curfew is still in full swing, most of the North American holly producers have already sold out of their products and are ready to call it a day for the New Year. "This is the best year for the market." Although it has long been expected that the market will be better than the previous year, but in the case of cut branch production than 2022 rose three times, potted plant production rose four times, can sell so well, growers are still doubly surprised.

The fiery red fruit, the beautiful symbolism, the extra-long bottle insertion period ...... of the North American holly's splash of Chinese red can be said to be born for the New Year's Eve.

Unprecedented increase in production, cut branch price polarization

Over the past few years, the domestic production area of North American holly has been growing at about 20% per year, and in 2022 it officially exceeded 20,000 mu. By 2023, although several head enterprises did not build new bases, but in Shandong Rizhao, Tai'an, Linyi, as well as other provinces and cities still have less than a few acres, more than thousands of acres of new bases built, because the vast majority of new "into the circle", the specific area is difficult to count.

North American holly production cycle is long, the next one or two years, the new base will not have too much impact on the total number of products on the market. On the contrary, after years of development and layout, including several well-known enterprises, including many old bases of cut branches and potted plant production in 2023 have increased significantly.

The reporter counted the cut branch production of four head enterprises: Weihai Seven Colors Biotechnology Co., Ltd. has more than 1 million branches, Yunnan New Eucalyptus Agricultural Science and Technology Co., Ltd. has 1.5 million to 1.6 million branches, Fu Manchu Hong Wan Mu North American Holly (Yunnan) Crop Science Co., Ltd. has 1.5 million to 2 million branches, and Weihai Tianshu Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. has more than 7 million branches.

Roughly calculated, the 2023 North American holly cuttings production is between 10 million and 12 million sticks, a significant increase over the previous year's 4 million sticks, Weihai Tianwu's production compared to last year's nearly doubled. Although the increment is marvelous, but the market demand is also in the same substantial increase. Fu Manchu red general manager Liu Zuolin predicted that the market demand for North American holly cuttings in the Dragon's New Year's Eve can reach 20 million sticks.

"Depending on the quality of the product, the price of cut branches has polarized." Wang Qiang, chairman of Weihai Tianshu, introduced that most of the A-grade goods went to offline channels, and the price was the same as 2022 when they were first listed, and then rose about 20%, while the B-grade and C-grade goods were mainly sold online, and the price dropped by 10% year-on-year.

Online sales have become an important channel for North American holly. "Some on-line professionals can sell 500,000 to 600,000 cut branches a year, pulling away several truckloads of goods each time." Cong Qun, general manager of Weihai Qicai, said.

"The competitive advantage of high-quality products is obvious." Chen Yingxu, general manager of Beijing Jingke Hongxiang Import and Export Trading Co. Ltd, has been engaged in the import business of North American holly for more than 10 years, and this year he completely abandoned imports and switched to purchasing from domestic sources. He said the quality of domestic products has been basically comparable to imports.

Potted plants formally on the amount of small sizes of the market is favorable

2023 is an important year for the development of North American holly potted products, after a few years of energy, not only the total production from about 250,000 pots in 2022 to about 1 million pots, and the industry's attention to the new varieties of 'Meister' finally batch listing.

"A dealer in Chengdu told me that he has already sold 20,000 of the 30,000 potted plants he pulled over, and he can sell 200 pots in a morning." Ding Delong, general manager of Rizhao Yulongchang Horticultural Science and Technology Co Ltd, told the reporter that some bases even sold harvested cut seedlings as potted plants under the soft persuasion of dealers.

New Eucalyptus Agriculture produces about 500,000 pots of potted plants, accounting for half of the country's total output. "Our potted plants are mainly 'Winter Red' and 'Oster', with heights between 30 centimeters and 1.2 meters." Zhang Yong, general manager of the company, said that from the feedback of the consumer side, desktop models of small potted plants sales are high, and will become the main products in the future.

Yu Youxiang, general manager of Hangzhou Runtu Horticultural Science and Technology Co. Ltd, was the first to introduce North American holly into the country, and he also made a big move in 2023, cooperating with a friend to build a new 500-acre base in Linyi, Shandong Province, half of which is used for the production of 'Meister' small potted plants, and it is a desktop model with a height of 30 centimeters and a crown of 30 centimeters. "If things go well, there will be 300,000 to 400,000 plants on the market next year." He said.

Again, production has increased sharply, and the price of potted North American holly is less firm compared to cut branches. According to the sales manager of Shanghai Flower Harbor Enterprise Development Co. Ltd, the price of these products has recently dropped by at least 30 percent year-on-year in the Shanghai flower market. But producers are calm about it. "Increase in the case of price reductions is inevitable, but also to the time to go." The hot sale of potted plants has led to seedling sales.