China´s wholesale industry is set to boom, according to one of the country´s market representatives.
Ma Zengjun, president of China´s National Agricultural Wholesale Market Association said 2,000 of China´s wholesale markets would be renovated to acceptable standards within the next three years.
China´s wholesale industry was only established in 1984, following government reform.
The country now has more than 4,000 functioning wholesale markets, although a large number of these require significant investment for refurbishment.
However, Zengjun said the industry would see vast development within the next 50 yeasr sicne China was only just realizing its potential in agricultural production.
Deborah Perkins of Rabbobank, in the US, agreed that trade in China´s fresh produce would continue to rise as the country´s overall economy steadily improved.
She said the country was still a net importer of foodstuffs, with a huge emphasis on processing, but this was expected to change.
She said: “China is labour-rich but resource-poor so it is still economically viable for them to import certain products, process them and re-export them to the original country.”
Perkins said a change in the domestic consumption of produce would have an impact on the future state of trade: “Consumption of vegetables is falling quite significantly but fruit is increasing. Therefore we are likely to see more vegetables exported than fruit. But they are exporting less than five per cent of their fruit so there is an opportunity for increased fruit exports.”
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