Great article - articulating lot of interesting points.
You said - `generally food is grown a lot closer to population centers`. Do you think if China had a better freight transportation network, it would open up opportunities for farther away provinces to grow and export food?
At this point the export of food within the country is not limited by its freight network. It has a developed cold chain, logistics and warehouse network with nationwide fresh food chains like FreshHippo (Alibaba Group) that have established logistics and can distribute food sourced from all over the country and world.
And China is never going to be a major bulk commodities exporter like the United States or Brazil which is really what you need bulk freight to ship commodities long distances to transportation hubs.
To me the more significant future trend is with vertical farming (https://twitter.com/GlennLuk/status/1769720683666248014) which can leverage technology to grow a wide variety of foods locally in year-round climate-controlled greenhouses. In the long run this could obviate the need to produce specialty crops in one location in export it thousands of miles to find end demand.
Good article Glenn, I agree with yr views on HSR. I’ve used it a fair amount and seen its growth - as someone involved in aviation in China, HSR is the only way to meet the size of the market for travel in China. ( small point, Isn’t “white elephant” the related expression to “grey rhino” you,re looking for in your opening para. .?)
Great article - articulating lot of interesting points.
You said - `generally food is grown a lot closer to population centers`. Do you think if China had a better freight transportation network, it would open up opportunities for farther away provinces to grow and export food?
At this point the export of food within the country is not limited by its freight network. It has a developed cold chain, logistics and warehouse network with nationwide fresh food chains like FreshHippo (Alibaba Group) that have established logistics and can distribute food sourced from all over the country and world.
And China is never going to be a major bulk commodities exporter like the United States or Brazil which is really what you need bulk freight to ship commodities long distances to transportation hubs.
To me the more significant future trend is with vertical farming (https://twitter.com/GlennLuk/status/1769720683666248014) which can leverage technology to grow a wide variety of foods locally in year-round climate-controlled greenhouses. In the long run this could obviate the need to produce specialty crops in one location in export it thousands of miles to find end demand.
Appreciate the context and clarity here, as always!
Good article Glenn, I agree with yr views on HSR. I’ve used it a fair amount and seen its growth - as someone involved in aviation in China, HSR is the only way to meet the size of the market for travel in China. ( small point, Isn’t “white elephant” the related expression to “grey rhino” you,re looking for in your opening para. .?)