Spring Festival going ‘farm-to-table’
CHINESE New Year’s Eve dinner, also known as “reunion dinner” and believed to be the most important meal of the year for Chinese, is becoming more and more healthy.
According to a report on consumer and retail trends in China in 2019 by research firm Nielsen Cooperation, 66 percent of consumers are willing to pay more for natural ingredients.
The preference for healthy products is also reflected in the Spring Festival market.
“Farm-to-table” consumption is booming. According to statistics from Alibaba’s Tmall shopping platform, a total of 190 million kilograms of agricultural products have already been sold nationwide during this Spring Festival shopping season.
“I buy food directly from the source for its better quality, higher nutritional value and fewer chemical additives,” said Chai Long, a 28-year-old Internet company worker in Beijing. “Thanks to the development of the Internet and the logistics industry, we can eat fresh meat, vegetables and fruit directly from farms.”
Consumers in physical markets also shared his views. “Green food” was snapped up by consumers at a Spring Festival market in Beijing, where farmers from poor areas sell products.
For example, a type of lamb meat from Zhangjiakou in Hebei Province was favored by consumers. The lambs grow up eating wild vegetables and have never received chemical injections.
Consumers’ appetite for healthy food has also spread to the import market. Beverages with higher nutritional value, including camel milk, low-calorie plant milk and fruit and vegetable juices, have made their way to the top of people’s shopping lists for the upcoming Spring Festival, according to Tmall International, Alibaba’s online marketplace for imported goods.
New ways of making healthier dumplings, a traditional Spring Festival food for Chinese, have been suggested by an expert.
Guo Lixin, from the National Gerontology Center, suggested putting cornflour or sorghum flour into white flour while making dumpling wrappers or using buckwheat flour or mung bean flour instead, to include more dietary fiber.
(Xinhua)