Nation's farmers cater to taste for foreign foods_美文

Nation's farmers cater to taste for foreign foods

More than 10 blueberry companies, registered in the past five years, have set up operations in China's northeast provinces, where soil requirements and climate conditions are perfect for growing such fruit, data from the Blueberry Research Institute of Dalian University show.

The Chinese fruit is a lot cheaper, too. Dalian Blue Health Agriculture Development Co sells wholesale fresh wild blueberries for 30 yuan per kilogram, less than half the price of imported US fruit.

On other fronts, Chinese consumers' growing appetite for cheese has offered another avenue for innovative local businessmen.

US dairy exporters have started to feel the pinch in the past two years when they witnessed diversified flavors of cheese products being introduced by local players.

"We definitely see this trend, that Chinese dairy producers like Bright Food (from Shanghai) and Sanyuan (from Beijing) are upgrading their formulas to include chocolate- and cherry-flavored cheese," said Jiang Yan, vice-president of PR Consultants, which represents the US Dairy Export Council in China.

In the US, cheese is supposed to be salty, Jiang noted. As this association tries to educate the market about how American cheese preserves the most nutrients, she admitted that domestic counterparts have edged ahead by catering to local tastes.

The Chinese demand for imported US food reached $22 billion in 2011. It not only jumped 10-fold in volume in the past 15 years, the market has also "moved up the value chain," said Keith Schneller, agriculture director of the US Agricultural Trade Office in Shanghai.