As the New Year and the Chinese Spring Festival draw near, vegetable markets across China enter the peak season with stable and sufficient supplies, well-prepared to meet the surging demand during the festive season.
In 2024, China's vegetable production continues to grow steadily. The sown area has expanded by over 800,000 mu (about 53,333 hectares) compared to the previous year, reaching more than 83 million mu. In mid-December, vegetable production exceeded 20 million tons, ensuring ample supply across the country. Choy sum, or Chinese flowering cabbage, is currently in its peak sales season in southern production areas.
Li Yuxiu oversees the operation of a family farm in Zhijiang City in central China's Hubei Province. His farm has a good harvest of choy sum.
"One mu of land yields about 1,500 kg of choy sum, both white and purple. We plant them at different time to ensure harvests in different months," said Li.
Buyers across the country are eagerly sourcing these fresh vegetables for vigorous markets. Tang Yan, who manages a fruit-and-vegetable cooperative in Hubei Province, expressed satisfactory over the pricing and sales of choy sum.
"I buy about 2,000 kg of purple choy sum every day from the farmers. The price is a little bit over six yuan (about 0.82 U.S. dollars) per kilogram. It was higher earlier, about eight to ten yuan. Farmers are happy about the pricing. We don't need to worry about sales as buyers from all over the country wait for goods here every day," said Tang.
In addition to open-field vegetables, vegetable greenhouses also report good yields and are filling up markets with their produce.
Pak choi, or leafy Chinese cabbage, is widely planted in a greenhouse in east China's Jiangsu Province.
"We have 130 mu of vegetable greenhouses here, all growing pak choi. Each crop yields 3,000 kg per mu," said Tang Yongjun, operator of the greenhouse.
On the market side, the sources of goods are being continuously expanded, especially for vegetables from Guangzhou, Yunnan, Fujian and other southern places, which all have sufficient stock.
Wang Ruixian is a merchant at the Shouheng Gaobeidian market in north China's Hebei Province, one of China's largest agricultural wholesale hubs. She has explored new origins of vegetables to ensure consistent supply. "This year, I have expanded my vegetable sources to Honghe and Xundian County in Yunnan Province. I also added special vegetables from Sichuan Province to my list. We can supply more than 200 tons today, over 50 tons above our daily supply volume of previous years," said Wang.
China's vegetable markets well prepared for festive season with ample supply
China remains resolute in its pursuit of the dual-carbon goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, positioning the green transition as a core driver of high-quality development, according to Zhao Chenxin, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday in Beijing, Zhao outlined significant achievements in 2024 and provided a roadmap for 2025, which includes advancing carbon reduction initiatives, strengthening green industries, and enhancing ecological protection efforts.
"We've rolled out guidelines for accelerating the green transformation of our economy and society and advancing nearly 200 specific initiatives. We've also released a catalog of industries supporting this transition, promoting 112 green technologies and 47 advanced low-carbon projects. We've developed a two-year action plan for energy conservation and carbon reduction, along with seven sector-specific plans, achieving significant progress. It is predicted that we reduced energy consumption intensity by over 3 percent last year, surpassing our targets. Additionally, we’ve implemented 194 national standards in the 'dual-carbon' field and supporting local governments in establishing carbon emission budget systems," Zhao said.
Zhao also emphasized that efforts in resource conservation and ecological protection continued to gain momentum.
"We've rolled out policies on promoting food conservation, reducing food waste, developing water-saving industries, and encouraging waste recycling. More than 60 billion yuan (about 8.2 billion U.S. dollars) of government funding has been allocated to enhance environmental infrastructure and support major ecosystem protection and restoration projects, including the 'Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program'. Additionally, we've formulated the Ecological Protection Compensation Regulations, and increased the annual funding of central and local governments to nearly 300 billion yuan (over 41 billion U.S. dollars)," Zhao added.
In addition, significant attention was given to programs aimed at large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins.
"In 2024, we allocated 300 billion yuan in ultra-long-term special treasury bonds to support large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-in programs. In the first 11 months of the year, national investment in equipment and tool procurement rose 15.8 percent year on year, contributing 65.3 percent to overall investment growth. Through the trade-in program, over 60 percent of consumers chose new energy vehicles, driving the domestic penetration rate of new energy passenger cars to over 50 percent for six consecutive months," Zhao explained.
Looking ahead, China will mark two major milestones in 2025 - the 20th anniversary of Chinese President Xi Jinping introducing the concept that 'lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets,' and the fifth year since China announced its dual-carbon goals.
Zhao said that the commission will continue to work with relevant stakeholders and prioritize these efforts by advancing carbon reduction, pollution control, green growth, and ecological expansion, while accelerating the comprehensive green transformation of the economy and society.
"We will actively plan the carbon peaking initiatives for the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), develop integrated evaluation and assessment methods, advance national carbon peaking pilot projects, and accelerate the building of zero-carbon industrial parks. We will further strengthen fiscal, financial, investment, and pricing policies and standards to foster the healthy development of green and low-carbon industries," Zhao stated.
"We will continue to enhance environmental infrastructure, implement major ecosystem protection and restoration projects, and explore mechanisms to realize the value of ecological products. We will work to achieve greater results in promoting the programs of large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-in, so as to increase funding, broaden coverage, optimize the implementation of the policies, and amplify their leverage effects in 2025," Zhao concluded.
China reaffirms commitment to green transition and dual-carbon goals: NDRC
