China’s Ministry of Finance (MOF) has pledged Yn1.5bn (US$227.96m) to firm up winter vegetable supplies to the country’s northern cities, with a particular focus on transportation.
The funding will subsidise vegetable growers and suppliers, reported Xinhua, and is in support of the Ministry of Agriculture’s (MOA) long-running ‘vegetable basket project’.
Short vegetable supplies in China’s north are generally due to either lower production or transportation problems. But supplies this year are sufficient and problems with transportation have come to the fore, Guangdong-based MOA official Chen Yu told Xinhua.
Icy roads often cause bottlenecks for supplies in winter, he said, since the majority of vegetables were transported to the north by road.
The MOA’s vegetable basket project was set up in 1988 to improve production and marketing of vegetables in China, and has seen around 4,000 wholesale produce markets established around the country.
The drive behind the project was refreshed last year, with a new five-year plan proposed in March by China’s State Council.
Vegetable production in China’s southern region has been hit by the particularly cold winter over the last few months, but that hasn’t stopped several provinces stepping up production and exports.
The southern province of Guizhou increased vegetable export volumes to Hong Kong by 61 per cent in 2010, year on year, for a value of about Yn8m (US$1.2m), according to the China Daily.
Horticultural powerhouse Shandong also boosted vegetable exports in 2010 by 74.6 per cent to US$4bn, and fresh and dried fruit and nut exports rose 16.6 per cent to US$740m.
