As recently as ten or 15 years ago vegetables in most major cities of China meant cabbage, or bok choy. In the manner still to be seen in less developed East Asian economies, such as North Korea, cabbage was stored, pickled and preserved for the long winter months. This reflected not just a restricted agricultural base but also limited ownership of refrigerators, lack of rural entrepreneurism and lower consumer income. The cabbage was not that tasty but did sustain the population in the colder northern regions of China.
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However, in the intervening years rural production has become far more varied in China while incomes have risen, retailing has vastly improved and refrigerator ownership rocketed. Now at Dayanglu, one of Beijing’s largest wholesale produce markets, the average inventory includes 109 varieties of vegetables including bell peppers, hot peppers and eggplants as well as more exotic and ‘new’ tastes such as “monkey-head mushrooms.” The old favourite cabbage – is now just an occasional purchase and where it used to account for 95% of all vegetable sales 20 years ago and then 50-70% a decade now it constitutes less than 10% of sales and falling.
Additionally price restrictions on vegetables have largely gone and this has meant that the popularity of cabbage has plummeted further. Now the situation in China has completely reversed with more cabbage sold in the warm and temperate south of the country than the north.
Finally, it should also be noted that from being a subsistence vegetable market China is now an active importer. In October this year alone, from Thailand alone, China imported 515 shipments of fruits and vegetables to for a total of 152,070 tonnes worth US$17.23m. By volume, this was an increase of 560% and by value, an increase of 214% from the same period in 2002. Most of the exports were cassava, durians, lumyais, bananas, and mangosteens. Changing tastes indeed.
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By GlobalData
