Normally for Westerners strawberries are associated with the Wimbledon tennis championship. In fact China’s strawberry growers are already the world’s biggest and are to ramp up output by 30% this year just to keep up with domestic consumption.
Last year China also held top spot in the frozen strawberry export market at 12%.
China’s frozen strawberry exports are set at 110,500 tonnes, as domestic consumption soars, the country is not about to become a net importer.
China’s growers are expected to dedicate 105,000 hectares to strawberries this year, a 14% rise, with the rest of the increase in output predicated on an assumption of better weather than last year, when cold weather held back yields.
This year prices for fresh fruit more than doubled to RMB3-4 $0.20-0.17) a kilo.
Agrimoney.com quoted USDA officials who said strawberry-flavoured jelly, jams, ice cream and yoghurt are in high demand, ‘especially among young and female consumers.’