Rising Demand, Trade Prospects, and the Rise of China's Horticultural Industry,

The main question that we examine in this chapter is whether policy makers, farmers, and traders in China have met and will be able to meet the growing demand for high-valued fruits and vegetables. Such questions, of course, have great implications for producers of fruits and vegetables in the US and other nations. To answer these questions, we explore three main issues. First, we briefly describe changes to China's policy approach to managing agriculture. The objective of this inquiry is to understand how the environment within which producers make decisions has changed during the past two decades. Second, we track the changes in agricultural supply in China. In this section we seek to understand how producers have responded over the past ten years to rising demand in both the domestic and external economies. Finally, we examine both enabling factors and constraining elements that will either push China towards or inhibit China from becoming the major supplier of horticultural products domestically and globally.