China has been beefing up its food security since 1998, says an observer.

WATERLOO, Canada: At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 230 million people in China faced mobility restrictions in what was the largest quarantine in human history.

One of the top concerns for government officials and citizens alike was access to food. Sporadic reports of panic buying, food price spikes and concerns about the freshness of food appeared on Chinese social media.



Yet food supplies and food prices in China have remained stable.

Because food shortages might become a severe challenge for many countries amid the rapid spread of the virus all over the world, there’s a lot to learn from China’s food security measures.



DIVERSE FOOD OUTLETS

An important factor in maintaining food security was the diversity of urban food outlets in Chinese cities. The epidemic provided an unexpected boost to online food markets run by the private sector, known as “new retail business” in China.

While millions were stuck at home, online food markets became the food retail option of choice. In cities where e-commerce in shops and restaurants is well-established, food buying was quickly transferred from offline to online.

It’s estimated people under 25 buying fresh produce from online markets skyrocketed by more than 250 per cent and patrons above 55 increased by almost 400 per cent.

Some of the most popular online food markets experienced sales boosts of 470 per cent year-on-year.

Many residents in the virus-hit city of Wuhan, China, are depending on online group-buying services to get food AFP/STR

Millions of online food orders are placed every day and delivered to people’s doorsteps or to lockers within housing complexes for pick-up.

THE ‘VEGETABLE BASKET PROGRAMME’

The success of online food markets in China wouldn’t have been possible without the long-term implementation of the state’s urban food security policy known as the “vegetable basket programme”.

Proposed in 1988, the programme mandates that city mayors are responsible for the provisioning, affordability and safety of non-grain foods, particularly fresh produce and meat.

Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, was among 35 other major cities assessed directly by the central government once every two years for its performance in implementing the programme.

Cities got good marks for improvements like delivery facilities in residential compounds such as passcode-protected cabinets for dropping off and picking up food, and the availability and accessibility of other types of food outlets such as supermarkets, small food shops and most importantly wet markets.

The strict evaluation ensured the diversity and extensive network of food sources for fresh produce and meat in every neighbourhood. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, high-scoring cities were able to adapt and ensure food security.

Local governments set specific goals for self-sufficiency rates of different kinds of food to demonstrate their commitments to the vegetable basket programme.

The city of Nanjing, for example, with a population of eight million, set a goal of 90 per cent self-sufficiency for leafy vegetables for the period of 2008 to 2012.

FILE PHOTO: A resident uses a mobile phone to pay for vegetables purchased through group orders in Wuhan, Hubei province, China February 21, 2020. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

These local food production goals were accompanied by strict plans for farmland protection within the jurisdiction. Chinese cities typically have large areas of townships outside central urban districts. Farmland in these townships is protected for the purpose of implementing the vegetable basket programme.

FOOD RESERVES

Food security in China is also reinforced by a food reserve system. The Chinese government has long operated a system of procuring surplus grains and pork with minimum procurement prices, and releasing the reserves to the market in the event of food shortages and price hikes.

In 2018, China’s total grain reserves were estimated at 120 million tonnes of maize, 100 million tonnes of rice, 74 million tonnes of wheat and eight million tonnes of soybeans. The emergency grain reserves guarantee 10-15 days’ supply of refined grains in major cities.

To cope with the outbreak of COVID-19, the Chinese government has been shuffling food reserves on different governmental levels. It has also released a huge amount of reserves to the markets of major cities.

A RESILIENT FOOD SYSTEM

Much more is happening in Wuhan and other cities to get food to dinner tables. While we can never overstate the important role of civil society and social organisations to guarantee food for the most vulnerable groups, we can’t neglect the long-term resilience of our food system.

This means restructuring food supply chains that are far too dependent on the supermarket system and food imports from faraway countries.

Encouraging the development of diversified food businesses through urban food system planning will improve resilience and provide more support for local and domestic food producers rather than transnational food corporations.

They are the safety nets we turn to in an increasingly uncertain world.

Zhenzhong Si is a research associate at the University of Waterloo. This commentary first appeared on The Conversation.

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