A diverse array of over 600 new vegetable varieties, including cucumbers, tomatoes, chilies, purple peppers and eggplants, are currently showcased at the 25th China (Shouguang) International Vegetable Sci-Tech Fair in the city of Shouguang in east China's Shandong Province.
Many of these varieties have already hit the market and are available to ordinary consumers, as China's advancements in vegetable technology are expanding the culinary horizons, offering more options for dining tables everywhere.
One particular highlight at the fair is a variety of "slimming cucumbers," which has garnered significant attention. "It contains several times more propanol diacid than ordinary varieties, which helps inhibit the conversion of sugar into fat, and is thus called 'slimming cucumber'," said Xu Tiemin, deputy mayor of Shouguang and deputy director of the Shouguang vegetable research &development center, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Shouguang, one of China's major vegetable production bases, has cultivated over 1,000 mu (about 66.7 hectares) of the new cucumber variety, with a yield of 10 tonnes per mu, according to Xu. Over the past four decades, China has cultivated over 6,500 vegetable varieties, with many fine varieties undergoing four to five generations of upgrades, according to the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
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