Low inventories

According to Wu Jie, a fruit analyst with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, May and June are the months when inventories are at their lowest levels and seasonal fruit has yet to hit the market. Unsurprisingly, they are also the months when fruit prices are highest.

Wu said this year has seen the highest fruit prices since 2014. The number of apples and pears in storage has been low since late October, which meant supplies were sparse when May arrived.

According to Wu's data, the inventory, or proportion of pears in storage, is less than 10 percent of the nation's annual production, while the figure for apples is less than 20 percent, compared with at least 30 percent in previous years. The proportion of good-quality fruit has also fallen this year, she added.

Although statistics show that prices have seen slight but steady growth over the past three years, the recent high prices have come as a surprise to consumers. That's partly because few people remember how much they paid in previous years, but they suddenly feel prices are much higher than usual.

To save money, many consumers have abandoned brick-and-mortar stores and turned to alternative suppliers.

Beijing resident Zhao Chenyi recently downloaded Pinduoduo-an e-commerce platform that allows users to join group-purchasing deals-so she can pay less for her fruit, while Wen Hong, also from Beijing, said he has stopped buying fruit at the market. He now buys it online, even though that means he cannot test the quality before purchasing.

Li Yi, from Xi'an, Shaanxi province, said she has started visiting an orchard in the countryside to pick cherries.

"The cost of the fruit plus the round trip is still cheaper than buying at the market," she said.

Wu said people's extreme reactions to the surge in fruit prices are partly due to the rise in demand as a result of China's rapidly developing economy.

"As incomes and living standards rise, fruit becomes a necessity for households. So, if the price rises, everyone's life may be directly affected," she said.