The sweet syrup wrapped in yellow fruit flesh, sealed together in a glass jar, is the "white moonlight" on the heart of children in Northeast China. In the eyes of many Northeasterners, plain canned peaches are like a "guardian deity", guarding the memories and emotions of several generations.

Nowadays, "Yellow Peach Canned God" has made it to the hot lists on various platforms, with a surge in online order volume and a depletion of offline store sales. When the "peach wind" swept over Pingyi, the "capital of canned fruits in China", the business owners here were not overjoyed, but more concerned about the stable development of the industry, fearing that the "hot selling yellow peach cans" would lead to unsold other canned fruits and cause market chaos.

Online explosive orders, leading to early peak sales season

Where there are cans, there are cans in that place. The latter "place" is the local town of Pingyi County, known as the "Canned Fruit Capital of China". This small town, with an area of less than 150 square kilometers, can produce nearly 900000 tons of various types of canned fruits annually, accounting for one-third of the total fruit canned production in the country, with an annual output value of over 10 billion yuan.

At the "China International Canned Food City" local industrial park in Pingyi County, reporters found that the well-known Yuquan Mengshui canned food and Qiwei canned food are produced here. The "peach wind" craze has hit, and these canned food business owners have keenly captured the industry's trends and dynamics.

"From the perspective of online sales, orders have surged more than 20 times compared to the same period last year, while the increase in offline sales is mainly concentrated in some first and second tier big cities." Wang Huiguo, Deputy General Manager of Shandong Yuquan Food Co., Ltd., said that due to differences in consumption habits between the north and the south, the canned peach market is mainly concentrated in the north, but with the development of logistics and commerce, it is gradually seizing the southern market. In this "hot season of canned peaches", sales in the southern market have also significantly increased.

Linyi Qiwei Canned Food also experienced the "peach wind" heatwave. According to Wu Zheng, the general manager of the company, the daily sales have surged from over a thousand orders to tens of thousands, an increase of more than ten times, especially in North China and Northeast China. The hot sales of canned peaches have also attracted some distributors outside the canned food industry, who are joining in one after another, hoping to get a share of the pie.

The surge in orders for canned peaches is both unexpected and reasonable for some manufacturers. "It was originally during the Spring Festival when we were stocking up normally, and in previous years, the order volume was also high at this time. However, driven by this wave of enthusiasm, the peak sales season has been advanced for a period of time."

Canned fruits are produced and sold annually, and selling them out in advance cannot increase production

Faced with this hot scene, many manufacturers in local towns appear particularly calm and restrained.

This "peach wind" craze has indeed made more and more people familiar with the "Chinese canned fruit capital" nurtured in this county, but for manufacturers located in the center of the vortex, it may not be a perfect thing.

"Canned peaches belong to seasonal production and annual sales, and the annual sales volume is basically produced from the end of September to early October. If they are sold out in advance, there will be no way to increase production." Seeing the popularity of their own canned goods, Wang Huiguo was pleased but also had some hidden worries. "We also don't want this hot wind to continue, causing a surge in sales and running out of stock. Dealers will look for other manufacturers, which is not conducive to the continuous maintenance of the relationship between the two parties. Moreover, a large number of canned peaches will be sold out, and after the boom, it may cause a large number of other types of canned fruits to be unsold, which is not conducive to the stable development of the enterprise."

In Wang Huiguo's view, the popularity of canned peaches this time is due to evoking memories and emotions of a generation. During holidays and festivals, family members gather together, eat a cool yellow peach on the hot kang, or bring a bowl of sweet fruit pulp when sick. These small glass cans store childhood memories of these people and are triggered at this specific time.

"But canned peaches are not just one type, and purchasing requires rationality and science. In addition, there is currently sufficient supply of various types of canned fruits, so consumers do not need to worry about price increases or hoard in large quantities," said Wang Huiguo.

Not just a sweet placebo, but also guaranteed nutrition and safety

Even though many manufacturers are calling for rational consumption, it is still difficult to resist the enthusiasm of consumers. For Wang Huiguo, who has been producing canned food for 14 years, what he most hopes to see is that canned fruits are closer to consumers and gradually eliminate their misconceptions about canned food. Now, this expectation is also gradually coming true.

"When it comes to canned fruits in the past, consumers subconsciously worried about the addition of preservatives or the loss of nutrients over time. According to Wang Huiguo, the nutrition of canned fruits is second only to freshly picked fruits. Canned fruit production adopts a model from the field to the processing workshop. Fruits are transported into the workshop after being picked from the ground for 2 to 4 hours, and the nutrients are locked into the cans through pasteurization and sealing technology. Moreover, most fruit canning manufacturers have established a traceable food safety system, which is more nutritious and safe than circulating fruits.". In addition, mature processing techniques in the fruit canned industry do not require preservatives at all. So, some consumers are completely concerned about the issue of preservatives.

The existence of consumer misconceptions has also prompted many canners such as Wang Huiguo to reflect on the direction of future efforts. From the perspective of health, local enterprises have developed low sugar and other products. The rising "Internet plus Canning" has changed the single traditional sales mode of super circulation for canning food merchants. The online platform has expanded the coverage of the canning market, and there are also positions to show the health and safety attributes of canned food.

In this "peach wind" craze, in addition to emotional exaggeration, many consumers also know that canned yellow peaches do not have medicinal effects. However, taking a bite at an inappropriate time in the body does indeed improve the essence and spirit, like a sweet "placebo", bringing spiritual comfort.