A boom in the opening of supermarkets is creating huge opportunities for international agriculture companies.
Traditionally, Chinese consumers bought food from open markets and it was only in the early 1990s that the first supermarket opened in the nation’s capital, Beijing.
Since then more supermarkets and hypermarkets — stores selling everything from consumer and household goods to fresh food — have opened in China.
The change has offered consumers a greater choice of international products, including fresh fruit and vegetables.
Beijing-based expat Shannon Aitken, who offers Western tourists gourmet food tours of the city, said more supermarkets had opened in the city since she moved there nine years ago.
She said the open markets were being shut down because of hygiene concerns and as inner city real estate became attractive to developers.
“A lot of the (Chinese) don’t have trust in locally produced food, so they are trying to source it from other countries such as France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand,” she said.
According to a 2013 ANZ report, only about 15 per cent of fresh food in China was transported via cold-chain networks, compared to 90 per cent in developed nations.
He said as infrastructure improved more Australian produce could be sold through supermarkets across the country.
