Fear Not —Yet

摘要

The International Fruit Tree Association's study tour group finds China's growth explosive, but its fruit industry cannot be termed progressive. FOR growers in the rest of the world, China's apple industry has been like a big animal lumbering around out in the woods on a dark night. The other growers know something's out there, and by the sounds it's making it must be pretty big and powerful, but what exactly is it? First off, let's start with what we do know, or, more precisely, what was learned bythe 80-plus members on the International Fruit Tree Association's recent study tour of China's major apple growing regions. China's cheap labor is its greatest advantage, but perhaps its chief drawback. The average income per acre in one typical villagewe visited was $2200 last year. The labor costs give China a giant advantage in the world market, to be sure. But it also invites a certain complacency. Part of it is due to the fact that all 1.3 billion people have to have something to do, and 15% of them are in farming, so there doesn't seem to be any strong desire to modernize the industry.