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Tangerine industry endangered by fly rumour

By Ji Shaoting, Miao Xiaojuan and Wang Cong (Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-01 16:12

But new cases have broken out in another province.

Guangdong provincial authority said on Wednesday that 15 boxes of tangerines from one batch were confirmed to have maggots and had been destroyed.

More than 250 check points had been established by the agricultural administration to monitor the situation in Guangdong while many other provinces had also built up examination system to guarantee food safety.

Prices have been lowered nationwide. Tangerine wholesalers in Xinfadi, a major fruit wholesale market in Beijing, said they cut the price by half to only 0.5 yuan, but orders were few and tonnes of tangerines had already rotted.

"If you all don't eat tangerines this year, what are we going to live on next year?" a farmer from Hunan cried in his blog on sina.com. The article has got more than 36,000 viewers and close to 2,300 comments.

Farmers and associations have been trying to figure out a way to save their industry.

The head of Pujiang County's fruit industry association in Sichuan province, named Chen Weijun, has been crafting a proposal to the government, suggesting the peasants, dealers and the government should share the loss.

"I'm too worried," Chen frowned and said. His county is near the core of the rumour.

More than 1,500 kilograms of tangerines lost buyers in one night after the rumour began.

"It was a big hit. If it continues, the fruit industry here cannot sustain any more," he said.

Other businessmen in northern provinces like Shandong have handed out tangerines for free at a wholesale fruit market in Jinan, capital of Shandong, to win trust. More than eight tonnes have been taken by thousands of customers within two days.

"We would rather give them away as presents than see them going bad," said Guo Jianxing, director of the information department of the market, where many venders lost more than 10,000 yuan (about 1,470 U.S. dollars) per day.

"The tangerines even became cheaper than waste paper," he said.

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