GUANLI: It is peak harvest season in this village in northern China, and apples are piled high on both sides of the road, clogging the traffic of tractors, trucks and carts bringing in the crop from all around.
China is the world’s top apple grower, accounting for nearly half of the global harvest. It has also emerged as the world’s biggest producer of apple juice, crushing more and more of its crop for exports to the US, Europe, Japan and even Australia, and accounting for about two-thirds of world supply.
Despite the apparent abundance of apples in Guanli, this year’s crop has fallen short of the demand from juice manufacturers, which have expanded capacity faster than orchards can plant trees. The shortage was exacerbated by cold, wet weather that reduced the crop.
The US Department of Agriculture’s attache in Beijing said China’s crop would drop 12% in the year to end-June from a record 26 million tonnes last year. Global production was 46 million tonnes last year, according to the department.
The industry officials say China’s 2007-2008 crop is down by up to 50 to 60% in some areas due to frost in the spring, though there are no reliable data. They put the country’s annual crop at somewhere between 20 and 25 million tonnes.
“Farmers grow apple wherever possible. All here have shifted from grains,” said Zhou Yuliang, a farmer in Guanli, near Yantai, in China’s top agricultural province of Shandong.
“Still the supply is not enough. There’s a lot of demand from the juice sector,” he said in early November, pointing to fields filled to the edges with apple trees.
Like many in this area, Zhou has switched to apples from corn in the past several years for higher income. His humble house is now equipped with a washing machine and a refrigerator and his 11-year old son goes to school in the nearby city.
Chinese apple juice makers have more than doubled their capacity since 2004, as demand for apple juice as a substitute for orange juice has grown. International orange juice prices are soaring as Brazil converts orange groves to biofuel crops and the US still suffers the effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Industry officials say China now has a combined capacity to churn out 5,000 tonnes of apple juice concentrate per hour, or about 1.7 million tonnes per year, close to the world’s annual consumption of about 1.8-2 million tonnes.
China Haisheng Fresh Juice Holding Co and Yantai North Andre Juice Co each have a capacity exceeding the 2006-2007 exports by Poland, the world’s number-two apple juice manufacturer.
China is the world’s top apple grower, accounting for nearly half of the global harvest. It has also emerged as the world’s biggest producer of apple juice, crushing more and more of its crop for exports to the US, Europe, Japan and even Australia, and accounting for about two-thirds of world supply.
Despite the apparent abundance of apples in Guanli, this year’s crop has fallen short of the demand from juice manufacturers, which have expanded capacity faster than orchards can plant trees. The shortage was exacerbated by cold, wet weather that reduced the crop.
The US Department of Agriculture’s attache in Beijing said China’s crop would drop 12% in the year to end-June from a record 26 million tonnes last year. Global production was 46 million tonnes last year, according to the department.
The industry officials say China’s 2007-2008 crop is down by up to 50 to 60% in some areas due to frost in the spring, though there are no reliable data. They put the country’s annual crop at somewhere between 20 and 25 million tonnes.
“Farmers grow apple wherever possible. All here have shifted from grains,” said Zhou Yuliang, a farmer in Guanli, near Yantai, in China’s top agricultural province of Shandong.
“Still the supply is not enough. There’s a lot of demand from the juice sector,” he said in early November, pointing to fields filled to the edges with apple trees.
Like many in this area, Zhou has switched to apples from corn in the past several years for higher income. His humble house is now equipped with a washing machine and a refrigerator and his 11-year old son goes to school in the nearby city.
Chinese apple juice makers have more than doubled their capacity since 2004, as demand for apple juice as a substitute for orange juice has grown. International orange juice prices are soaring as Brazil converts orange groves to biofuel crops and the US still suffers the effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Industry officials say China now has a combined capacity to churn out 5,000 tonnes of apple juice concentrate per hour, or about 1.7 million tonnes per year, close to the world’s annual consumption of about 1.8-2 million tonnes.
China Haisheng Fresh Juice Holding Co and Yantai North Andre Juice Co each have a capacity exceeding the 2006-2007 exports by Poland, the world’s number-two apple juice manufacturer.
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