Egypt, one of the global leaders in exports of frozen strawberries, has remained the second biggest supplier to Japan over the past few years, reports EastFruit. Nevertheless, this year, the Egyptian exports to Japan have seriously fallen, and the country now risks to ship the lowest volumes of frozen strawberries to the Japanese market at the end of 2023.
Japan is the second after China biggest importer of frozen strawberries in Asia. Moreover, the Japanese market is one of the most demanding of quality and characteristics of imported fruits. As a result, presence in the Japanese market can rightly be considered a success of the whole industry of an exporting country.
The largest volumes of the Egyptian frozen strawberry exports to Japan were registered in 2021-2022, when they reached 7,000 tonnes annually. They also peaked in February-June and were gradually declining by the end of the year.
This year, the Egyptian exports to Japan have fallen by 40% year-over-year and will most likely reach their lowest level over the past few years at the end of 2023. Declining imports from Egypt will also lead to a fall in the total imports of frozen strawberries in Japan.
In January-June 2023, Japan imported 15,000 tonnes of frozen strawberries, the lowest result over the past few years. Before 2023, imports were relatively stable and varied between 31,000-32,000 tonnes annually. As a result, in 2021 Japan yielded its status of the biggest Asian importer to China, which imported 36,000 tonnes. In 2022, China continued to increase imports of frozen strawberries, and they totaled 39,000 tonnes.
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It is also interesting that China is also the largest supplier of frozen strawberries to Japan, but its presence has been gradually shrinking over the past years. In 2018, China exported 13,000 tonnes of frozen strawberries to the Japanese market. In 2022, the Chinese exports amounted to just 11,000 tonnes.
Egypt has been the second biggest supplier of frozen strawberries to Japan since 2019. The list of other important suppliers also includes Chile (5,300 tonnes of exports in 2022), Morocco (3,800 tonnes), the USA (2,100 tonnes), Peru (1,400 tonnes), and Poland (600 tonnes).
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