China Is Going Bananas for Bananas
- China’s imports of the tropical fruit rose to a record in May
- Fruit and nut purchases soar almost eight-fold in May
Photographer: Luong Thai Linh/Bloomberg
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Chinese consumers are buying more bananas from abroad than ever before as an increasingly health conscious middle class help propel the fruit’s popularity.
Imports of bananas surged to a record 227,199 tons in May, according to China’s general administration of customs. That helped lift total shipments of fruits and nuts to 720,000 tons, an almost 8-fold increase from the same period last year.