Changes of Garlic Recently

           In May, the market is in the new and old garlic convergence stage, different periods of mature garlic successive successive digging, producing areas, the market gradually increase the amount of fresh garlic, the domestic market transactions also shifted to the new garlic above. But the new garlic is not yet fully dry, the export processing to be stocked with old garlic is still the main, in June with the dryness of the new garlic to enhance the export processing to take gradually to the new dry garlic is mainly overseas buyers demand active, processing plant to take the increase in the amount of goods.

Overview of Garlic Export

From the trend of total garlic exports in the first five months of this year, overseas buyers are more active in purchasing (Figure 1).The total export volume of China's fresh or frozen garlic in January-May 2024 was about 750,000 tonnes, which is about 43,900 tonnes more than the total export volume of 706,100 tonnes in January-May 2023, with a year-on-year increase of about 6.21%. After entering May, the new season garlic is not yet fully dry, the export processing is still dominated by the old garlic in the warehouse, but also outside buyers are actively purchasing, the export volume increased compared with April, of which China's fresh or frozen garlic exports in May was about 153,600 tonnes, an increase of about 2.73% , compared with the export volume of 149,500 tonnes in April. 

Figure 1 China's total garlic exports in the first five months in 2024

Date：China Garlic Trade Network

Changes in the unit price of garlic exports

From the recent six months garlic export unit price(Figure 2), because the new dried garlic is not yet fully dry, in May garlic exports are still dominated by the old garlic in the library, due to the storage traders eager to ship, the market selling pressure is heavy, so that the library garlic prices sharply lower. But from the recent six months China's garlic export unit price trend, China's garlic export unit price in May fell significantly. 2024 China's garlic export unit price in January for 1330.04 USD/t, China's garlic export unit price in February for 1265.77 USD/t, garlic export unit price in March for 1385.56 U.S. USD/t, garlic export unit price in April for 1431.92 U.S. USD/t, garlic export unit price in May for 1431.92 U.S. USD/t, garlic export unit price in May for 1431.92 USD/t, and the export unit price of garlic in May was 1,337.59 USD/t. Compared with the export unit price of 1,124.98 USD/t in the same period in May 2023, the year-on-year increase was about 18.90%.

Figure 2  Changes in the unit price of garlic exports, January-May in 2024

Date：China Garlic Trade Network

Garlic export outlook for the later period

June new season garlic has been fully dry, export processing take basically new dry garlic, overseas demand has increased, garlic exports ushered in the traditional peak season, but shipping costs have continued to rise since May, resulting in a substantial increase in export costs, and some of the routes are tight, which adversely affects the export of garlic, so that some of the orders are postponed, processors are not motivated to take orders, is expected to be limited to increase the volume of exports of garlic in June. The increase of garlic export volume is expected to be limited in June.