Food safety fears spark growing taste for imported fruit among China’s middle class
Mainland imports of avocados have risen annually by more than 400 per cent in the past three years, and lemons and limes are up by more than 300 per cent compared with last year
Zhang Che was eating a Mexican avocado – currently one of the most popular fruits sold in China – just as she was reading the latest news article about the poor sales of domestic fruit growers.
A fourth high-end fruit store has now opened within five minutes walk of her Shanghai home.
“When I was young, buying fruit meant choosing apples, pears and bananas,” Zhang says. “Now my family spends nearly 1,000 yuan [about HK$1,200] each month on a much wider range of fruit, such as cherries from California and kiwi fruit from New Zealand,” Zhang said.
Longstanding fears over food safety standards on the mainland – including frequent reports of residue left on domestic fruit after the excessive use of pesticides and swelling and ripening agents – have led to a craze among China’s growing middle class for imported prime fruits in recent years.
Avocados shipped in from Mexico were now the fastest increasing item, said Mabel Zhuang, China consultant of the global fresh produce trade organisation, Produce Marketing Association.
Imports of avocados have increased annually by more than 400 per cent in the past three years, she said. Just behind avocados in rising popularity were lemons and limes, with year-on-year growth last year of more than 300 per cent, blueberries at 160 per cent and bananas at 140 per cent.
