Apple Industry In China

Apple is one of the most popular fruit in the world and widely produced in 80 countries and regions. China's apple industry plays a vital role in the country's national economy. Since 1992, the apple production of China has surpassed that of the United States to become the top in the world. The past two decades have witnessed a fast development of China's apple industry and its remarkable role in the readjustment of agricultural structure, the increase of farmers' income and the earning of foreign exchange through export. The dissertation takes the readjustment of agricultural structure and food composition as the background for the development of apple industry to analyze the whole production chain of China's apple industry according to the requirement of apple production and processing. The study is based on theories as industry production, market balancing, comparative advantages and international trade, adopts methods of Delphi investigation, comparative analysis, positive analysis and normative analysis. With the purpose of tackling problems in production, marketing, consumption and international trade in China's apple industry. This dissertation puts forward some suggestions to develop apple industry and enhance its competitive capability in the global market.The study elaborated by this dissertation covers 6 areas in apple industry: (1) Production. As the leading country in the world in apple production, China has the advantages of planting history, favorable geographic and climate conditions, human resources and a potential market capacity. With the improvement of people's consumption level and the demand for fruits in both domestic and international market, the state of apple industry in agriculture is getting more and more important. Since China's adoption of the opening policy, the apple industry in China has experienced two fast growing periods and one adjustment phase in its development. Now the apple production bases in the Northwestern region and Bohai gulf region have become the largest production region for high quality apples in the world. (2) Consumption. The consumption of apple is closely relevant to factors such as population, income, price, preference, and substitute and processing. With the improvement of people's living standards, the apple consumption will generally have a rising tendency in food consuming, despite some up and down. According to the analysis model and the current apple supply and demand situation, the expected annual increase of China's apple production will be high, leaving a huge space for development. (3) Processing. Due to the late start of the processing industry, China's apple processing is still lagged behind its production. Inefficient and small scale processing is widely existed because of the lack of fund and up-to-date technologies. Factors like poorly designed package, unfavorable storage condition and short shelf life lower the competitive capability of China's apple processing industry in export and earning benefits. (4) Circulation and Price Policy. The circulation system of China's apple industry has experienced different stages in the past half century. At present, the circulation system is a pluralistic one, with various circulating channels and fast development of fruit wholesale markets in big cities and fruit growers' associations in rural areas. The adoption of the "company plus growers" model has effectively guaranteed the healthy growing of the market. Inaddition, the combination of production and marketing and the improvement of comprehensive service for the market has further promoted the stepping forward of the apple industry to modernization. The apple price management system in China has walked a long way from a non government-guided system to a planned management system to a negotiated price system according to production and demand. The release of the management on apple price has played an essential role in the rapid increase of apple production after 1984. (5) Competitive capability in the international market. The international trade volume of...