Over the past ten years, apple production in China has undergone a deep transformation which still is partially underway.
China is the largest apple producer in the world and it can offer excellent business opportunities for those working in the sector.
This is one of the real conclusions reached by the participants in the “Interpoma International” congress, which was held in Bolzano as a forerunner to Interpoma 2016, the international apple trade fair, which will be held next November.
Thomas Mur, manager of Fiera Bolzano explains that “prior to the trade fair contacts and studies occur to raise the level of this event even more and therefore, it seemed important for us to know which are the new markets that are interesting for our exhibitors.”
At the last edition, two years ago, 71 different countries took part, confirming the event’s growing international dimension. For this reason, “before choosing China as a topic, we explored several of its producing regions. Some of the Chinese installations correspond to high quality standards, whilst most show conditions similar to those that existed in our country in the 1950s.”
“We contacted political representatives and research centres. In this way, we could see that China has an important interest in the subject of apples and that the economy in this sector is developing at great speed”.
Yongbing Yuan, a professor of fruit and vegetable growing sciences at the College of Horticulture and Deputy Chairman of the Qingdao Agricultural University, stated that “in China there is currently an enormous surface area of apple crops: around 2.3 million hectares, with a total production of approximately 38 million tonnes. The cooperatives of producers are not yet sufficiently widespread, in spite of the government’s efforts to promote them. And, furthermore, there are very few varieties present, with the Fuji taking up virtually 73% of the production. The market, on the other hand, has 1,400 million consumers”.
Regarding the agricultural machinery, for example, the Asian country is a large-scale importer. “According to some studies, Yongbing Yuan declared, 70% of the machines that are used in farming are imported”. And there are not too many difficulties for plants either, given that in recent years many trees have been purchased in Europe, particularly in the Netherlands.
“Our apple trees are old; we need a new variety replacement. Moreover, the installations created using more modern criteria allow machinery to be used. And the government is also offering incentives for purchasing new machinery”.
The largest concentration occurs in the province of Shandong, which produces 9.3 million tonnes alone. “Our intention is to reach a production that is spread over more than 400,000 hectares, with 40 tonnes per hectare before 2020, at the same time reducing the labour costs and the use of water resources by 15% and the use of fertilisers by 30%. Alto Adige is the example we follow”.
Kurt Werth, an advisor for Interpoma, explains his experience: “We often talk about China, but it is difficult for us to image its incredible size. A quarter of mankind lives in China. For Interpoma’s exhibitors, this market has great potential: given its size and its development speed, the business opportunities are obvious. For plant cultivation, the Chinese are beginning to look at what the rest of the world is doing: grafts or intermediate rootstock. The equipment is often imported from Italy or other areas in Europe. The mobile platforms, such as the sprayers or nebulizers also come from the Alto Adige region. There is also significant interest in research stations.”
The “Interpoma International” meeting is just the first of a series of events and debates to be carried out by Interpoma on the central role played by China in the apple production and selling sector.
