If you buy kiwifruit out of China, the calendar is the first thing that decides whether a season goes smoothly. Fruit picked two weeks early does not travel. Fruit booked after Chinese New Year sailings fill up does not arrive on your promotional window. This page sets out how the Zhouzhi season actually runs, month by month, so you can plan volumes and bookings against real dates rather than a supplier’s optimism.
We are writing this as a grower-exporter based in Zhouzhi County, Shaanxi. Everything below reflects what our own orchards, nursery and packing house do across a season.
Why the Zhouzhi calendar matters more than the price sheet
Zhouzhi sits on the northern slope of the Qinling Mountains. Cool nights and a wide day-night temperature difference slow fruit maturation, which is why Zhouzhi kiwi fruit builds dry matter gradually and holds up in storage. The county carries roughly 400,000 mu of kiwifruit planting and around 500,000 tonnes of annual output, so volume is rarely the problem. Timing is.
Two things catch new importers out. First, “kiwifruit season” in China is not one block. Different varieties come off the vine from late August through late October, and each one has a different storage life. Second, Chinese New Year lands somewhere between late January and mid-February, and in the three weeks around it, factories close, trucking tightens and reefer space gets expensive. Programmes that ignore this end up shipping late or paying for air freight.
Harvest windows by variety
Dates below are typical for our blocks in Zhouzhi. We pick on dry-matter reading rather than on the calendar, so a warm autumn can pull a window forward by a week.
| Variety | Flesh | Typical harvest window | Storage behaviour | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kiwiberry (soft-stem) | Green, edible skin | Late August | Short, needs fast turnover | Niche retail, short routes |
| Hongyang | Red flesh | Early to mid September | Moderate | Gift and premium retail |
| Cuixiang | Green | Late August to early September | Short to moderate | Early-season programmes |
| Xuxiang | Green | Mid to late September | Good | Wholesale and food service |
| Ruiyu | Green to gold | Late September to early October | Very good | Long-distance programmes |
| Hayward | Green | Mid to late October | Excellent | Late season, long storage |
If your programme needs fruit on a shelf in March, you want Hayward or Ruiyu, not Cuixiang. If you are chasing an early-season promotional slot before Southern Hemisphere fruit clears, Cuixiang and Hongyang are the ones that can make it. We would rather tell you this in September than sell you the wrong variety.
From vine to container, month by month
August to October. Field work is finishing: thinning, irrigation control and maturity sampling. Blocks are sampled for dry matter and soluble solids before any picking decision. This is also the window to confirm your specification, because once packing starts, changing carton formats costs you a week.
October to November. Harvest runs variety by variety. Fruit is pre-cooled within hours of picking, then machine-graded by weight, size and defect. Our registered packing house handles grading and carton coding in-house, which is what lets us trace a carton back to a block and a grower.
November to February. The main shipping window. Controlled-atmosphere storage holds fruit while containers are booked and loaded. Most of our export volume to the EU, the Middle East, Central Asia and Southeast Asia moves in these months.
Late January to February. Chinese New Year. Production stops for roughly two weeks and reefer rates move. If you need fruit in this window, plan to load before or after it rather than during it.
March to May. Late-season fruit out of storage, mostly Hayward. Quality depends entirely on how the cold chain was handled from November, which is another reason to buy from the packer rather than a broker.
Typical transit times from Chinese ports
These are indicative door-to-port timings from Qingdao or Shanghai by sea. Rail and truck routes are quoted separately for Central Asia and Russia.
| Destination | Typical transit | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Southeast Asia | 7 to 14 days | Shortest route, highest frequency |
| Middle East | 18 to 25 days | Summer heat needs reefer setting checks |
| European Union | 30 to 38 days | Book well ahead for pre-Christmas arrival |
| Central Asia and Russia | 12 to 20 days | Rail and truck, weather sensitive in winter |
Work backwards from your shelf date. A container that needs to be on a European shelf in the first week of December has to leave Zhouzhi in late October, which means the specification has to be agreed in September.
When to lock volume and book space
Our practical suggestion for a first season: agree the specification and indicative volume before harvest starts, confirm the final number during harvest, and book reefer space as soon as the packing plan is fixed. Buyers who wait until the fruit is already in the cold store usually get whatever carton format is left.
Samples of the current season’s fruit can be sent ahead of your commitment. If you are comparing us against another origin, ask for the same variety at the same dry matter, otherwise the comparison tells you nothing.
Seedlings and pollen run on a different calendar
Plants are not shipped with the fresh fruit. Bare-root kiwifruit plants are lifted from late autumn through spring dormancy and dispatched to match your planting window, while potted plants can move on a wider schedule. Male pollen is collected and germination-tested before the pollination season, so pollen orders need to be placed ahead of spring flowering. If your business is nursery supply rather than fresh fruit, the planning conversation starts in autumn, not in the harvest months.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get fresh kiwifruit outside the November to February window?
Yes, in most years, through controlled-atmosphere storage. Late-season availability depends on the variety and on how the previous months were handled, so ask us for a specific month rather than a general yes.
What is the minimum order?
One 40HQ reefer container per shipment for fresh kiwi fruit. Consolidation across two lines is possible when both come from the same harvest window.
How early should I contact you before the season?
September at the latest for a November shipment. Earlier if you need a new carton print or a private-label format, because artwork and plate lead time sits outside the fruit calendar.
Do you ship to my market already?
Our fruit has moved to the EU, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Central Asia and Russia. Tell us your destination port and we will confirm which line and carton specification already runs there.
Plan your season with us
Send us your destination port, your target arrival window and the volumes you are thinking about. We will come back with which kiwifruit lines fit that timing, current availability and an indicative landed cost. If you want to see where the fruit is grown and packed first, the orchard base and packing operation are open to inspection before the season starts.
Request a quote and we will work the calendar backwards from your shelf date.
Written and reviewed by the Yunti Gudao field and packing team, Zhouzhi County, Shaanxi. Dates reflect typical seasons at our own blocks and shift with the weather.