China is the world’s leading exporter of tomato products thanks to a dynamic tomato-growing and processing industry based in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, according to China Business Times.
The northwestern region of Xinjiang hosts 116 firms that make it Asia’s leading base for growing and processing tomato products, including over 1.6 million tons of ketchup each year. Ketchup has been Xinjiang’s leading export item since the 1970s. By the 1990s the region was recognized as the undisputed quality leader in global ketchup production. Today annual ketchup exports alone are $500 million.
“There has never been one case of complaint about the quality of the tomato products from foreign buyers,” said an official at Xinjiang’s inspection and quarantine bureau.
In terms of total tomato production Xinjiang trails only the United States. While 85% of US tomato products are destined for domestic consumption, virtually all of Xinjiang’s production is intended for export because China consumes a relatively small amount of tomato products. Per capita tomato consumption in China is only 0.6 kg (1.25 lbs) per year while in the US and Europe ketchup consumption alone is 20-30 kg (45 – 67 lbs) a year.
Xinjiang’s tomato industry has evolved a highly-integrated structure that makes it cost-efficient in producing everything from ketchup to high value-added products like tomato juice, tomato seed oil and lycopene.
The residue from tomato processing which was once treated as industrial garbage or animal feed. Now it’s used to produce tomato seed oil which contains a rich blend of nutrients like lycopene, vitamin E and carotene. Lycopene capsules produced in Xinjiang are now widely sold across China.
Over the past several decades Xinjiang’s tomato industry has systematically addressed structural problems like soaring labor costs, a high yuan and overproduction amid slowing export growth. Thanks to more use of technology and better production controls, the industry is now facing a plump future.
Its farmers have recently cut production by 30% to better keep pace with a global market growing only about 3% a year. As a result ketchup prices have risen from $750 per ton last year to $850 this year.
One of the most promising areas of growth is the potential for China’s own vast domestic market.
“Tomato contains rich nutrients but domestic tomato consumption is still low,” points out deputy commerce minister Jiang Zengwei. “There is therefore plenty of room for development in the future.”
