At Shuangbei Village, Baihe Street, Longquanyi District, Chengdu, large-scale grower Jiang Hanqiang told reporters that this year's commercial fruit sells for 30 yuan per jin at the farm gate, 20% lower than last year. He cultivates 80 mu of "Queen Nina" grapes, which sold out during the National Day holiday, mainly supplying large premium supermarkets. He is not alone in this experience. Recently, the topic of "'Queen Nina' grapes dropping from 200 yuan to 15 yuan" sparked heated discussion. Netizens noted that this autumn, local produce priced at 15 yuan per jin has appeared in wet markets in places like Zhongwei, Ningxia, while the variety originally sold for as much as 200 yuan per jin when first introduced to the domestic market. On a social platform, netizens lamented this year's price drop. "Queen Nina" is a mid-to-late ripening variety introduced from Japan. Individual berries can reach up to 20 grams, with crisp and tender flesh carrying a subtle red wine and rose aroma, earning it the consumer nickname "Hermes of Grapes." It typically ripens in July, with the supply period extending to early October. Has the price really dropped to the "1" digits range? What is the actual production and sales situation in Sichuan? Reporters conducted an on-site visit.
Prices fall back to 30 yuan, low prices in the 10-yuan range mostly for inferior fruit
At a fruit shop on Jinsha Street, Qingyang District, Chengdu, Shine Muscat and seedless red grapes were neatly displayed. Looking around, reporters found no "Queen Nina." The fruit shop owner said the store generally does not sell this fruit because "it's expensive, with wholesale prices around twenty to thirty yuan." Although hard to find in street fruit shops, "Queen Nina" is quite popular in large supermarkets like Pagoda and Freshippo. At Freshippo, it currently sells for 29.9 yuan per box, with each box weighing one jin, sourced from Honghe, Yunnan, down from the previous 39.9 yuan per jin. "Only 3 boxes left, almost sold out," a salesperson told reporters. At Freshippo, "Queen Nina" is priced at 29.9 yuan per box, one jin per box, previously sold at 39.9 yuan per jin. Additionally, online sales channels are also booming. Reporters opened a sales platform app and found "Queen Nina" from Liangshan, Sichuan, offered at a special price of 105 yuan for 4 jin, averaging only 26 yuan per jin; there are also products from different origins like Yunnan on sale, with prices ranging from over 20 yuan to 50 yuan per jin. In recent years, Sichuan-grown "Queen Nina" is mainly produced in the Panxi region (Xichang in Liangshan, Miyi in Panzhihua) and the Chengdu Plain area (Tianfu New Area, Pengshan, Dayi, Longquanyi). The Panxi production area is the optimal region for "Queen Nina" in the province. Abundant sunshine and large temperature differences between day and night naturally favor coloration, with greenhouse cultivation as the main method, and premium fruit exported to Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Multiple growers mentioned that prices are indeed decreasing year by year. Last year's farm gate price was around 37 yuan per jin, while this year premium fruit is around 30 yuan per jin. Prices of 12-13 yuan per jin are mostly for inferior fruit. With prices falling, how are growers' profits? Yang Rongyong from Gaocao Hui Township, Xichang City, said that thanks to Xichang's unique climate conditions, this year's highest yield reached 4,000 jin per mu, with an average output value of 50,000 yuan per mu and total output value exceeding 2 million yuan. Yang Rongyong said that including land transfer fees, input costs, and labor costs, the annual planting cost per mu is around 20,000 yuan, more than 30% higher than the cost of growing Summer Black grapes. "High investment, but following a high-quality route, and currently there's still profit to be made." Yang Rongyong's "Queen Nina" this year achieved an average output value of 50,000 yuan per mu. Photo by Xing Xiaoyi. Industry insiders say that "Queen Nina" appearing in the market at excessively low prices like 15 yuan per jin may have issues such as uneven fruit coloration and insufficient sweetness. "Some growers, in pursuit of yield, are reluctant to thin flowers and fruits, and inadequate management during the color-turning period results in unevenly colored fruit, faint aroma, and even fruit cracking. These ordinary fruits cannot enter premium channels and are absorbed through other channels." A netizen shared a photo of "Queen Nina" selling for only 15 yuan per jin. A relevant person from the Chengdu Agricultural Products Market Circulation Association introduced that this year Chengdu market's "Queen Nina" has fallen back to around 30 yuan per jin, but premium fruit meeting top standards (uniform wine-red color without green spots, sugar content above 25 degrees) still maintains firm prices, with high-end retail prices even exceeding 100 yuan.
Sichuan has achieved localized mass production, no price collapse expected in the short term
Why is the price of "Queen Nina" declining year by year? The gradual breakthrough in domestic cultivation technology, coupled with continuous improvement in management methods and significantly increased yields, is the most direct reason in the eyes of industry insiders. The reason "Queen Nina" is expensive lies in its high cultivation difficulty. Zhong Qi, a member of the grape research group at the Horticulture Research Institute of the Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences and an expert at the Chengdu Comprehensive Experimental Station of the National Grape Industry Technology System, pointed out that first, coloration is difficult, with extremely high requirements for sunlight and temperature differences; inadequate management can easily cause fruit to turn green. Second, the tree vigor is also very sensitive, requiring refined fruit thinning and water-fertilizer management; keeping one extra cluster of fruit may cause the entire cluster's flavor to deteriorate. Because of this, in the early days, the only production area capable of consistently producing premium "Queen Nina" was Jianshui in Yunnan. But subsequently, domestic experts, through rootstock improvement and color-turning period management, solved the problem of uneven coloration, with sugar content stabilizing above 20 degrees, and places like Meixian in Shaanxi, Yingkou in Liaoning, and Wuzhong in Jiangsu successively formed commercial fruit supply capacity. Sichuan seized the opportunity even more. Since 2020, Zhong Qi's team has introduced trial plantings in Xichang and surrounding Chengdu, and the province's current planting area exceeds 10,000 mu. "Targeting the special climate bottleneck of the Chengdu Plain — 'high temperature, high humidity, and insufficient sunlight' — we successfully overcame technical bottlenecks such as difficulty in grape coloration and quality decline under high-temperature conditions through intelligent greenhouses and scientific management," Zhong Qi said. The standardized greenhouses, 4.5 meters tall, are equipped with fully automatic "panoramic skylights," using the principle of rising hot air for natural heat dissipation; during branch and vine pruning, secondary shoot leaves are deliberately retained above the fruit clusters to provide shade and sun protection for the grapes. In addition, by precisely controlling nitrogen and fertilizer levels during the fruit expansion period, the taste and other qualities are ensured. Zhong Qi told reporters that "Queen Nina" has achieved stable mass production in Chengdu, with an average yield of 2,000-2,500 jin per mu and a commercial fruit rate as high as 95%. This year, the province's average output value per mu is around 30,000 yuan; with good management, output value per mu can reach 70,000-80,000 yuan. Besides the continuous expansion of planting area, consumers' greater emphasis on cost-effectiveness is another major factor. "Queen Nina" sold on an online platform. Jiang Hanqiang mentioned that although prices fell this year, the quality requirements for purchasing, such as sugar content, size, and coloration, are higher than in previous years. "In recent years, various 'internet-famous' fruits have emerged endlessly, and consumers have reduced their novelty-seeking and returned to rationality." Xiong Yuning, an associate professor at the School of Economics, Xihua University, said that faced with various labels on "Queen Nina," consumers are more inclined to look at color, ask about sugar content, and then decide whether to buy. However, Shine Muscat once fell from a peak of 200 yuan per jin to today's teens or even a few yuan per jin, rooted in blind expansion and uneven quality. Will "Queen Nina" experience a similar situation? Multiple industry experts and growers believe that due to higher cultivation technology and investment thresholds, there will not be a situation of farmers blindly following the trend and expanding planting in the short term. "'Queen Nina's' cultivation and management difficulty is higher than Shine Muscat's, which naturally forms a technical barrier," Zhong Qi analyzed. "Queen Nina" must strictly control yield to ensure quality, with average yield per mu not exceeding 3,000 jin, far lower than Shine Muscat's typical 4,000-5,000 jin. This "delicate" attribute determines that it is difficult for explosive overcapacity to occur in a short time. Have you ever tasted the "Hermes of Grapes"? Does the price drop make you tempted?
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