The pattern of "southern vegetables shipped north" takes shape: one third of winter vegetables on the Beijing market come from the south

In the past, once winter arrived, radishes and Chinese cabbage became the stars of northern residents' dining tables. Nowadays, the vegetables on the market come in a dazzling variety of types. Where do these vegetables come from?

The Xinfadi Market is a barometer of the Beijing vegetable market. Liu Tong, head of the market's statistics office, introduced that about 1/3 of Xinfadi's winter vegetables are supplied by provinces south of the Yangtze River, mainly in East China, South China and the Southwest. Take celtuce, for example: apart from northern greenhouses, it is mainly supplied by Fujian; long beans are supplied by Sichuan and Hainan; and hot peppers and bell peppers mainly come from Guangdong and Hainan.

Liu Tong said that since 2000, agricultural products have been brought into the scope of large-scale circulation. At Xinfadi, the market debut and withdrawal of each variety form a circular chain linked end to end. Take cauliflower, for example: the solid cauliflower now on the market comes from Yunnan and Zhejiang, and cauliflower from these two places is supplied until around April. After April, cauliflower from Jiangsu and Shandong begins to reach the market and can last until June. In July, the supply areas for cauliflower become Zhangjiakou and Chengde in Hebei, Chifeng in Inner Mongolia, Datong in Shanxi and other places, with supply lasting until the end of September. After October, the supply area for cauliflower shifts to the outskirts of Beijing. In November, the supply area for cauliflower moves south to Henan and Hubei and other places. After December, the supply area once again returns to Zhejiang, Yunnan and other provinces. Entering winter, at Xinfadi, the daily supply of cauliflower is around 800 tonnes, and this supply volume lasts about 120 days.

Mu Yueying, a professor at the College of Economics and Management at China Agricultural University, said that the formation of the "southern vegetables shipped north" pattern is the result of multiple factors working together. First, the development of transportation provided the transport conditions for shipping southern vegetables north; second, changes in the crop production layout in the south meant that vegetables had a comparative advantage over rice, and in recent years they have developed rapidly in southern provinces; third, the improvement in residents' living standards created rigid demand for vegetables, which also provided a broad market for shipping southern vegetables north.

Big market, large-scale circulation: southern vegetables will not be too expensive

Qiu Huanguang, a professor at the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Renmin University of China, pointed out in his research that, because vegetables are produced seasonally and are not easy to store, their prices show cyclical changes. Winter vegetable prices are relatively high, mainly because production costs and transport costs increase.

Liu Tong believes that the transport costs of shipping southern vegetables north are mainly made up of two aspects: one is the transport cost, and the other is the refrigeration cost. Because of long-distance transport, many vegetables cannot be loaded directly onto trucks after harvesting; they need to be refrigerated in cold storage for two days, and only after the temperature of the cauliflower drops are they loaded into refrigerated trucks and shipped north.

“In an environment of a big market and large-scale circulation, even with southern vegetables shipped north, vegetable prices will not be absurdly expensive.” Liu Tong said that the current weighted average price of vegetables at Xinfadi is 2.45 yuan/kg, lower than the same period last year. Because this year's Spring Festival falls later, the peak in vegetable prices has come relatively late. Generally speaking, every year starting from the 15th day of the 12th lunar month, vegetable prices show an upward trend, rising until around the Spring Festival; at the peak, the weighted average vegetable price can rise to around 3.5 yuan/kg. “This year, pepper varieties have been affected by low temperatures in southern supply areas, and price fluctuations have been fairly obvious.” Liu Tong said.

Pesticide residue problems are generally well controlled; vegetables from formal markets can be eaten with confidence

In recent years, vegetable safety incidents such as “toxic ginger” and “toxic cowpeas” have been exposed frequently. People worry: are the vegetables on the market safe?

Zhu Yi, an associate professor at the College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering at China Agricultural University, said: “The biggest problem in vegetable safety is pesticide residues. In recent years, the pesticide residue problem has been well controlled, and the rate of exceedance has kept falling. In formal farmers' markets in big cities, within the scope of market supervision, the vegetables bought can basically be eaten with confidence.”

Zhu Yi believes that some concerns about the quality and safety of agricultural products are now magnified. Take pesticide residues in vegetables: the indicators now reserve a 100-fold safety margin. Sometimes when people hear that the pesticide residue in a certain vegetable exceeds the standard by 2 times, it sounds terrifying, but it is still within the safe range. Compared with pesticide residues in vegetables, what deserves more attention is the current extensive use of pesticides. At present in China, only 20%-30% of pesticides have an effect, while the remaining 70%-80% disperse into the air, soil and water. These pesticides then return to the human body through biological cycles, and the harm they do to the human body is far greater than the harm done by pesticide residues in vegetables.

Zhu Yi said that there is now a consumption misconception that vegetables with wormholes are vegetables that have not been sprayed with pesticides. In fact, if there are relatively large wormholes, it instead shows that the vegetables used a larger dose of stronger pesticides. In addition, do not place too much faith in wild foraging or vegetable picking at farmhouse resorts. Also, vegetables grown in residential compounds or parks are polluted by air pollution and car exhaust emissions, and their content of toxic elements is very high.