Chinese farmers in some provinces are being forced to let fresh vegetables rot in their fields due to weak demand and ample supply, according to a local news report and videos posted on social media.
Piles of vegetables like cabbages and radishes have been left unharvested or destroyed in some cases across key producing regions from Shandong to Inner Mongolia, local media outlet Jiemian reported. Videos on Chinese social media platforms show distressed farmers and crops left to rot.
China is grappling with a gloomy jobs market and an ailing property sector, which is a key threat to growth, and data released Thursday showed economic activity shrank in November. Restaurants and supermarkets have slowed buying of vegetables amid a sluggish economy, according to Jiemian.
Heavy rains across regions in the north and northeast this year delayed the harvest of vegetables grown on open land. When those crops finally hit the market, it coincided with supplies from greenhouses, leading to a glut. Prices have declined, but that hasn’t been enough to spur buying interest.
Farmers have struggled to sell their vegetables in Henan, despite prices sliding to low levels, according to local media outlet Dahe.cn. The province is the second-largest producer of vegetables in China.
Around the same time last year, Chinese farmers were forced to destroy healthy crops because of strict Covid-19 measures. Trucks and merchants were either unwilling or couldn’t enter the villages to collect agricultural produce because of movement controls and quarantine orders.
Chinese farmers have boosted vegetable production over the past decade under a government push to bolster food supplies. Output in 2022 was around 800 million tons, up 26% since 2013, according to official data.
