Toxic fears ruin shoppers' appetite

By Zhao Yanrong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-05 09:14

Worries about food safety are making cowpeas difficult to stomach, despite the fact that they are now selling for half the price they were last month.

At just 4 yuan a kg, the vegetable is still not shifting from grocery stores. Shoppers lost their appetite after a scandal in southern China in January in which cowpeas grown in Hainan province were found to contain a highly poisonous pesticide.

Cowpeas were banned for a while in Beijing and just came back on the market this week after testing found the foodstuff was safe.

"We arranged for testing for the pesticide, not only for cowpeas but all vegetables from Hainan province after the toxic cowpeas were reported in the media," said Zhang Yanni, press officer with the Xinfadi Farm Product Co Ltd, which is the biggest outdoor market in Beijing.

Zhang said the tests came up negative and vegetable sellers are able to return to business as usual. But he said the incident caused massive damage and the demand is not there any more.

"Vegetable dealers, especially Beijing's major supermarkets, have stopped buying cowpeas," Zhang said yesterday.

METRO visited stores and markets in the capital yesterday and found it hard to locate cowpeas. "Food safety concerns all customers. I haven't sold any cowpeas for a week," said Hu Lin, a shop owner from the Huixin community market in Chaoyang district.

According to vegetable sellers at the market, Xinfadi Farm Product Co Ltd is the only wholesaler currently selling to Beijing.

"I transferred all my cowpeas into Zhengzhou's market in Hainan province," said Sun Qi, a female wholesaler.

Sun said business had been quiet since the financial crisis but before the cowpea scandal, every trader at city markets sold them.

Zhang Jiansheng was one of the few retailers trying to sell cowpeas yesterday.

"No one even came to check my cowpeas this week, until this morning. I used to sell at least three tons every day for as much as nine yuan a kilo before the toxic cowpeas were reported," said the trader, who has been in business for more than 20 years.

"I bought them from farmers for 3.4 yuan a kg but ended up selling them for just two yuan a kilo. I thought it was better than seeing them decay in my hands," Zhang said.

A new stock of cowpeas is likely to hit Beijing markets in three weeks when crops in Guangxi are harvested.

Zhang said he hopes things have returned to normal by then.

"I am suffering from the heaviest losses I've seen since I started my business," he said.

Du Juan contributed to the story.