An Unexpected Worse New Season Peapod and Sugar Snap Pea in China

Due to the difficulty in collecting the peapod and sugar snap, the overall cultivation area shows a downward trend year by year.

 

Due to the difficulty in collecting the peapod and sugar snap, the overall cultivation area shows a downward trend year by year. The actual planting area of peapod decreased by about 10% compared with last year and the area of sugar snap is basically the same as last year.

 

Peapod

 

But there were 3 times bad cold weather with snow and rain during the growing process ,this affected the output of the fields obviously.

 

1st frost: With minus 7°C low temperature， the snowfall came in late December;

2nd frost: With minus 8°C low temperature, the snowfall came again in late January;

3rd frost: With minus 6°C low temperature, the freezing rain came in late February.

 

Peapod

 

Considering the peapod and sugar snap peas are a kind of root plant with superficial roots, are easily damaged by freezing air. The main effects of the damage by frost are as follows in the view of the current growing situation:

 

Peapod

 

I. Some plants died and did not recover with new buds after Spring;

 

II. Some seedlings which were damaged and withered by frost luckily survived with new sprout from the roots after the Spring got warm, but their growth delayed and lagged significantly, and the final yield is predictably not optimistic;

 

Sugar Snap Pea

 

III. Most plants survived have been affected with a result of slow growth with weak stem strength after Spring. The main stalk of the plants are thin and not strong, we can see from the height of the plants is much shorter than those were in the same period of last season. Most plants only reach the height of an adult's knee (about 40-50cm) at present, while they could have reached the height of an adult waist height (around 80-100cm) in the same period in previous normal crop season.

 

Sugar Snap Pea

 

Considering the above growth situation in the field what we saw in recent days, the actual production reduction rate will be at least 30-40%, now we saw indeed the high price of fresh materials both of peapod and sugar snap from the field this week, pretty expensive even more than the level of 2022 season. For example the fresh raw material price of peapod ex field now is already reached the same level of the final packed peapod price ex factory in May of 2022. And the fresh sugar snap collecting price ex field this week is already 29.5% higher than the final frozen sugar snap price ex factory. Sugar snap much worse than peapod this year.

 

Furthermore, we worry about the overall processing cycle will be shortened and the production volume will be reduced much finally due to the recent low temperature of about 3°C for long time which led to one week delayed of the harvesting time compared to last year.