Why is German canned asparagus made in China? German media: Chinese don't like to eat white asparagus

Reference News Network reported on April 16 Chinese do not like to eat white asparagus, so exported to all over the world? Unlike the Spaniards and the French, the Germans love to eat fine asparagus? — A German television station heard such a statement during an interview in China.

According to the Deutsche Welle radio website on April 9, German private television station Pro7 this week broadcast a program about the "journey" of white asparagus from China to Germany. China has 13 million hectares of asparagus cultivation area, with an annual output of 4.55 million tons of white asparagus, of which 90% is exported to foreign countries, the program said.

German tv reporters came to a white asparagus canning factory in China, where dozens of workers were skillfully peeling the asparagus and carrying knives like flying knives. One female worker said she had been working for two years, so she was moving quickly. The person in charge of the processing plant said that the thickest white asparagus is for Spain, the middle thickness is for France, and the thinnest is for Germany, "because Germans love to eat fine asparagus."

Asparagus is a popular food among Germans, rich in vitamins and minerals, and low in calories. The narrator of the pro7 TV show said, why is the canned white asparagus from China? First of all, because China has more farmland, and secondly, because Chinese does not like to eat white asparagus, it is exported to all over the world.

Is this really the case? In the program, a German tv reporter interviewed a professional white asparagus grower who hired 50 workers to plant and harvest white asparagus. He said that every year from the end of March to June can be harvested white asparagus, about 60-70 days, he himself only tasted once, "foreigners love to eat", he does not like to eat, but he believes that white asparagus is very healthy.

The TV reporter then returned to the white asparagus processing plant and saw that the peeled white asparagus was scalded in hot water, and the workers in charge of this procedure "decided how long to burn according to feelings" and "could bend and move.". After that, the white asparagus is cooled and bottled, poured into salt water, and finally transported into a "Chinese-style equipment" for high temperature sterilization. The white asparagus in glass bottles traveled by sea to Hamburg via Sri Lanka, Yemen and Portugal, and 44 of them were shipped to Berlin for quality inspection, and the label also reads Berlin.

A pro7 TV reporter asked a wholesaler: Why does the label write Berlin? The wholesaler replied that it was because the supplier was from Berlin. According to the law, consumers are not required to be informed that they were originally from China.

However, this practice has been questioned by the German media. A significant proportion of a wide range of products, including apple juice concentrates, frozen asparagus, canned oranges, processed strawberries, and concentrated ketchup, have reportedly come from China, but not all products indicate origin. WestDeutsche Radio has reported that the reason for importing from China is also because the production of strawberries and raspberries in Germany and the European Union cannot meet the needs of the people. Some industry insiders said that from the perspective of Chinese food imported to the EU, its quality problems are less than in other countries.