题图：中国农业部专家开发的卡露伽鱼子酱品牌，占据了全球鱼子酱供应量的三分之一以上。

China is becoming an increasingly powerful producer of luxury foods, supplying domestic consumers with once-rare delicacies and in some cases breaking into overseas markets.
中国正日益成为高端食品的强大生产国，为国内消费者供应曾经罕见的佳肴，并在某些情况下打入海外市场。

The world’s second-largest economy now accounts for the majority of global production and exports of caviar. It has surpassed Australia, from whom it originally imported macadamia trees, to become the second-biggest producer of macadamia nuts.
目前，这个全球第二大经济体占据了鱼子酱全球产量和出口量的主要份额。中国已超越最早引进夏威夷果树的澳大利亚，成为全球第二大夏威夷果生产国。

China is also stepping up the farming of cherries and sale of wild truffles and produces thousands of tonnes of foie gras a year.
中国还在扩大樱桃种植规模，增加野生松露销量，并每年生产数千吨鹅肝。

“[Previously], many consumers who could afford it didn’t know about it, or didn’t know it was in China or Huoqiu county,” said Li Fengshan, a farmer in the central province of Anhui who produces about 100 tonnes of foie gras a year mainly for the domestic market. “Now, many know.”
“以前很多消费得起的顾客不了解这个产品，或者不知道它产自中国、产自霍邱县。”安徽省一位年产约百吨鹅肝的农民李凤山表示，其产品主要供应国内市场。“现在很多人都知道了。”

“More people are eating it now,” he added.
“如今食用它的人越来越多了。”他补充道。

The availability of such products, which were previously largely imported, has increased dramatically in China in the past two decades.
过去二十年里，这类曾经主要依赖进口的产品在中国的可获得性已大幅提升。

The change in part reflects strong support from provincial governments in agriculturally rich regions such as south-western Yunnan, eastern Shandong and central Anhui, which have encouraged farmers to switch to higher-value crops.
这一变化部分反映出云南、山东、安徽等农业资源丰富省份地方政府的有力支持，这些地区鼓励农民转向种植附加值更高的作物。

While largely driven by swelling domestic appetite, the luxury food boom poses yet another challenge to trading partners of China, which posted a record goods trade surplus of more than $1tn in the first 11 months of 2025.
尽管主要由国内日益增长的需求驱动，但高端食品的繁荣给中国的贸易伙伴带来了又一重挑战。中国在2025年前11个月录得了超过1万亿美元的创纪录货物贸易顺差。

The impact is most evident in the case of caviar, where rapidly expanding production in China since the 1990s has reshaped global trade in the delicacy produced by salt-curing sturgeon roe.
这一影响在鱼子酱领域最为明显。自上世纪90年代以来，中国鱼子酱产量的快速扩张重塑了这种由盐渍鲟鱼卵制成的珍馐的全球贸易格局。

Kaluga Queen, a caviar brand developed by experts working for China’s agriculture ministry, is today the world’s largest supplier, producing 260 tonnes of the fish eggs in 2024 — 35 per cent of the global total.
由中国农业部专家培育的鱼子酱品牌“卡露伽”如今已成为全球最大供应商，其在2024年生产了260吨鱼子酱，占全球总产量的35%。



In 2012, China exported about $12mn worth of caviar, accounting for roughly 14 per cent of global exports. By 2024 — after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine disrupted Russia’s trade — Chinese exports were worth $98mn, about 43 per cent of the global total, according to International Trade Centre data.
根据国际贸易中心的数据，2012年，中国出口了价值约1200万美元的鱼子酱，约占全球出口量的14%。到2024年——在莫斯科全面入侵乌克兰扰乱俄罗斯贸易之后——中国鱼子酱出口额已达到9800万美元，约占全球出口总额的43%。

“High-end food production is closely tied to government consumption,” said Ian Lahiffe, a consultant specialising in Chinese agriculture. “Domestic demand was hit after restrictions were put on government banquets, and producers suddenly found themselves sitting on stock they had to sell overseas.”
“高端食品生产与政府消费密切相关，”专注于中国农业领域的顾问伊恩-拉希夫表示。“在限制公务宴请后，国内需求受到冲击，生产商突然发现自己库存积压了，必须销往海外。”

Lahiffe said Chinese producers had been able to grow rapidly and undercut rivals because of advantages that included cheaper labour, looser animal welfare requirements and faster production cycles and supply chains.
拉希夫称，中国生产商之所以能够迅速扩张并削弱竞争对手，是因为其拥有包括更廉价的劳动力、更宽松的动物福利要求以及更快的生产周期和供应链在内的优势。

Other producers, such as farmer Li in Huoqiu, remain focused on China’s vast domestic market, despite weak overall consumer confidence in recent years.
尽管近年来整体消费者信心疲软，但其他生产商，如霍邱县的农民李先生，仍然专注于中国庞大的国内市场。

“Domestic consumption is improving year by year,” said Li, though he also exports some of his 100g tins of foie gras to the Middle East.
“国内消费正在逐年改善，”李先生表示，不过他也将部分100克罐装鹅肝出口至中东地区。



The growth of China’s macadamia nut industry highlights how local governments have supported the development of premium foods. In Mangshi, a city in Yunnan close to China’s border with Myanmar, vast tracts of land are lined with macadamia trees, the result of an effort that began in the 1990s after their nuts were identified as a high-value crop that could lift rural incomes.
中国夏威夷果产业的发展凸显了地方政府如何支持高端食品的开发。在靠近中缅边境的云南芒市，大片土地种植着成排的夏威夷果树，这是自20世纪90年代当地将其坚果认定为可提高农村收入的高价值作物后启动的一项努力的成果。

Earlier efforts to grow the trees in coastal provinces such as Guangdong and Hainan had been set back by typhoons that toppled the shallow-rooted trees. In Yunnan, authorities offered subsidies, fertilisers, irrigation assistance and training to encourage smallholders to devote land to a crop then little consumed in China.
早期在广东、海南等沿海省份种植夏威夷果树的尝试曾因台风而受挫——这种浅根树木容易被吹倒。在云南，当局通过提供补贴、肥料、灌溉援助和培训，鼓励小农户将土地用于种植这种当时在中国鲜有消费的作物。

“Once the farmers saw there was money to be made, they followed the competition,” said Hu Mingming, deputy general manager of Yunnan Discovery Group Macadamia Company.
“一旦农民看到有利可图，他们便纷纷加入竞争，”云南迪思集团坚果有限公司副总经理胡明敏表示。

Beijing’s emphasis on food security has shaped how and where the nuts are grown. Large areas of Yunnan’s flatter, more fertile land are reserved for staples such as rice and corn — a policy sharpened by trade tensions with the US, a big exporter of agricultural commodities to China. Macadamia growers are relegated to hillsides, where yields are lower and harvesting is slower.
北京对粮食安全的重视塑造了这种坚果的种植方式和区域布局。云南大片平坦肥沃的土地被预留用于种植水稻和玉米等主粮——这一政策因与对华农产品主要出口国美国的贸易紧张关系而得到强化。夏威夷果种植者则被安排到山坡地，那里产量较低，采收速度也较慢。



Despite these hurdles, Chinese growers have dramatically expanded harvests. Between 2016 and 2024, Yunnan’s share of global macadamia production rose to roughly 20 per cent from about 3 per cent. In 2023, China overtook Australia as the world’s second-largest producer and is now looking to surpass South Africa.
尽管存在这些障碍，中国种植者仍大幅扩大了收成。2016年至2024年间，云南在全球夏威夷果产量中的占比从约3%上升至约20%。2023年，中国超越澳大利亚成为全球第二大生产国，目前正寻求超越南非。

Most of Yunnan Discovery’s output is sold domestically, with about 70 per cent of sales concentrated around the lunar new year gifting season, and Hu said there was ample room for growth as the nut becomes more affordable.  
迪思集团的大部分产品在国内销售，其中约70%的销量集中在农历新年礼品季。胡明敏表示，随着这种坚果价格变得更加亲民，市场仍有充足的成长空间。

“There’s a joke that whatever expensive fruit exists in the world, Yunnan will import it, research it, cultivate it — and bring down the price,” he said.
“有个笑话说，世界上无论有什么昂贵的水果，云南都会引进、研究、种植——然后把价格打下来，”他表示。

China is the world’s largest consumer of cherries and is projected to eat about 1.5mn tonnes this year, 900,000 tonnes grown domestically and the rest imported largely from Chile.
中国是全球最大的樱桃消费国，预计今年将消费约150万吨，其中90万吨为国内种植，其余主要从智利进口。

Shandong emerged as China’s largest cherry-growing province after local authorities identified the fruit as a strategic growth sector and encouraged apple farmers to switch.
在地方政府将樱桃认定为战略性增长产业并鼓励苹果种植户转种后，山东已成为中国最大的樱桃种植省份。



Chinese cherries do not compete directly with the Chile imports, which arrive in the country during the local growing season. However, traders say the abundance of cheaper domestic fruit has reset consumer price expectations.
国产樱桃与智利进口樱桃并不直接竞争，因为后者在本地樱桃产季上市。然而，贸易商表示，大量价格更低的国产水果已经重塑了消费者的价格预期。

Yunnan is not well known for cherry production, but Faraz Maani, an Iranian American who previously sold Chilean cherries in Asia, now produces the fruit at Sol Farm in Midu county in the south-western province.
云南并非以樱桃生产闻名，但此前在亚洲销售智利樱桃的伊朗裔美国人法拉兹-马尼，如今在该省南部的弥渡县索尔农场种植樱桃。

Growing cherries in temperate Midu has required both private ingenuity and state-built infrastructure. To replicate the cold winters that enable the trees to enter dormancy, Maani transports them into industrial cold storage. The facilities, which house about 10,000 trees, are powered by cheap electricity from a nearby wind farm. Local authorities also built pipelines to supply water.
在气候温和的弥渡种植樱桃，既需要民间智慧，也离不开国家建设的基础设施。为模拟能让樱桃树进入休眠期的寒冷冬季，马尼将果树移入工业冷库。这些可容纳约一万棵果树的设施，由附近风电场提供的廉价电力驱动。当地政府还修建了供水管道。

“We used to have droughts, and then there was a huge project to bring water in through pipes in the mountains,” Maani said. “That’s the beauty of what this country is capable of through centralisation.”
“我们过去常遭遇干旱，后来实施了一项大型工程，通过管道将水从山区引入，”马尼表示。“这体现了这个国家通过集中力量办大事所能实现的成就。”

“We’re growing cherries in a place that shouldn’t be growing cherries.”
“我们正在一个本不该种植樱桃的地方种植樱桃。”