Chinese consumers favor California’s specialty foods, especially in the wake of food safety concerns in China.
From the Washington Post:
Some California growers are cashing in on China’s increasing wealth and growing hunger for table grapes, almonds and other high-quality fruits and nuts that don’t grow as well in the Asian nation.Such pricey commodities helped drive the value of U.S. agricultural exports to China from less than $1.9 billion in 2001 to nearly $6.7 billion last year.
The bulk of U.S. crops being shipped to China are soybeans, grains and other commodities that the country buys from the Midwest to use as animal feed and process into noodles and other products. China also buys U.S. cotton to keep its textile mills humming.
Table grapes are California’s best-selling food crop in China. The value of those exports hit $90 million in 2005, up from $80 million in 2001, according to the most recent statistics available from the California Department of Agriculture.
State almond exports to China increased to $52 million in 2005 from $25 million in 2001, while raisin exports grew to $17 million from $4 million.[Full Text]
[Image: Grape Pruner, Jian, China; from Rivard, via flickr.]
