Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
AsiaWire
China’s ‘pear capital’ is desperately trying to flog 400,000 tonnes of its famous fresh fruit after the Coronavirus outbreak caused a decline in demand and halted global exports.
Officials in Dangshan County, in East China’s Anhui Province, have turned to live streaming to promote their famous ‘Su’ – or ‘crispy’ – pears, and have formally pleaded with e-commerce platforms to help ease the burden on local farmers.
Some 70 percent of the county is made up of orchards producing fruit such as the region’s hugely popular Dangshan Su pears, which are now selling for just 1.5 RMB (18 p) per pound.
According to Chinese state media, local farms in Dangshan harvest about 1.7 million tonnes of pears every year, with 1.2 million tonnes put through fruit processing to create canned or dried pears, as well as jams or other products with a long shelf life.
Around 60 percent of Dangshan’s processed fruit is exported to more than 30 countries around the world, but that wholesale chain ground to a halt in January and February as factory output stopped and exports were suspended.
Last week, Dangshan Bureau of Commerce released a statement asking the country’s various e-commerce platforms to help take some 400,000 tonnes of fresh Su pairs off the hands of desperate local farmers.
Orchard owners and staff who rely sole on Su pears to survive stand to lose all their income for the year if the seasonal harvest goes to waste in a landfill, local reports revealed.
In a bid to kick-start sales, municipal official are expanding the use of social media platforms such as live-streaming services to market and auction Dangshan Su pears.
However, it was not immediately clear what percentage of the potential economic loss officials hope to mitigate.
According to the Dangshan People’s Government, pears have been grown in the region for hundreds to thousands of years.
Some of the most well-known written records of the Dangshan’s famous pear industry date back to 1577 during China’s Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644) emperor Wanli.
In 2017, half of China’s top 10 fruit and vegetable manufacturers were located in the region.
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