Dongpo Pickle, Chinese Delicacy Shared by the World

The 13th China International Pickle Food Expo will be held in Dongpo District, Meishan City, China from November 27 to November 29. Meanwhile, 11 single events, including the 5th Chinese Pickle Seminar, the open day for professional procurers, the sharing meeting for cooperation opportunities between RCEP and the food industry of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle, and the 4th “JD.com International Pickle Food Expo” will be held.

Taking “Healthy Food – Shared by the World” as the theme, the Expo will be jointly sponsored by the China National Food Industry Association and China Chamber of Commerce For Import and Export of Foodstuffs, Native Produce and Animal By-products, and jointly organized by Meishan Municipal People’s Government. As the largest and highest-level pickle food professional exhibition in China, the Pickle Food Expo has been successfully held for 12 sessions in Dongpo District, Meishan City, which is known as the “Hometown of Chinese Pickle”. There will be more than 600 participants including experts and scholars, heads of chambers of commerce, professional procurers, investors and exhibitors in the Expo.

Dongpo District, Meishan is located in the Chengdu Plain in southwest China, where pickle owns a history of more than 2,000 years. Dongpo Pickle is named after Su Dongpo, a great writer in ancient China. Su Dongpo, a native of Meishan, Sichuan, is not only a writer, painter and calligrapher, but also a gourmet. He liked eating pickle, made pickle himself and spread pickle production skills throughout most of China. The Legend of Young Su Dongpo, which will be presented at the Expo, is a large-scale 3D animation series, which mainly tells the growth story of Su Dongpo in his boyhood and will be played around the world in the near future.

Since the 1980s, Dongpo Pickle has begun to evolve from folk production to modern production. After a long time of accumulation, “small pickle” has gradually developed into a “big industry” and created a well-known “Chinese pickle City”.

In order to ensure the quality of Dongpo Pickle, in recent years, Meishan has not only established the Chinese Paocai Industrial Technology Research Institute and the National Pickle Quality Inspection Center, but also taken the lead in formulating pickle industrial standards in China. Under strict industrial standards and quality control, Dongpo Pickle, a healthy food, goes abroad and gradually conquers people’s taste buds with its unique flavor, becoming a popular appetizer in the world.

At present, the raw material base of pickle in Meishan City is stable at 400,000 mu, and has formed a pickle industrial cluster integrating processing, packaging, cold chain and logistics. Dongpo Pickle enterprises, such as Jixiangju, Chuannan and Liji, become China’s first pickle enterprises with self-operated import and export trade. In 2021, the pickle industry in Meishan City realized a sales revenue of RMB 21.78 billion, accounting for 1/3 of the total market share in China and over 50% in Sichuan Province.

In recent years, the influence of the China International Pickle Food Expo has gradually expanded, and Meishan’s “Flavor in Meishan” food industry has started with pickle and gradually entered the global stage. With the sales revenue exceeding RMB 110 billion in 2021, Meishan’s “Flavor in Meishan” food industry has formed a food industry system with pickle as the main product, together with catering, grain and oil, condiments, confectionery, dairy products, livestock products and tea, selling goods to Europe, America, Japan, South Korea and many other countries and regions.

Source: Meishan Municipal People’s Government