China - a new leader in tomatoes production

Tomato production in China is set to beat all previous records in 2006, according to the forecast made by the Foreign Agricultural Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA FAS), which concludes that more than 32.5 million tons of tomatoes were produced in the country last year. Together with the USA, China is one of the world's most important tomato suppliers, and according to the Ministry of Agriculture's statistics, average wholesale prices in the first quarter of 2006 were up 76% on the same period in 2005. The major tomato producing areas say that the high prices are leading to acreage expansion, as well as more input, such as fertilizer and labour, which will increase yields. The study found that fresh tomatoes are produced in all of China's provinces, the most important provinces being Shandong, Xinjiang, Hebei and Henan. Fresh tomatoes are mainly supplied to Russia, Hong Kong and Vietnam, and these countries account for more than 95% of China's total fresh tomato exports.