From caviar to cherries: How China is turning luxury foods into a domestic powerhouse

From caviar to cherries: How China is turning luxury foods into a domestic powerhouse

For years, luxury foods in China carried a simple assumption: if it was expensive and rare, it probably came from somewhere else. Caviar, foie gras, macadamias, premium cherries and wild truffles were all treated as imported indulgences, eaten by a narrow slice of consumers and often tied to gifting or high-end dining.

The Financial Times reports that this is no longer the right way to think about the market. China is becoming a serious producer of luxury foods, supplying domestic consumers with delicacies that used to be largely imported and, in a few cases, pushing into overseas markets as well.

A big part of the shift is visibility. In Huoqiu county in Anhui, a foie gras producer told the FT that earlier, even people who could afford foie gras did not necessarily know it existed locally or was produced in China. Now, he said, many do, and more people are eating it. He produces about 100 tonnes a year, mainly for the domestic market.

This growth is not only about consumer taste. The FT points to provincial government support in agriculturally rich regions such as south-western Yunnan, eastern Shandong and central Anhui. Local authorities have encouraged farmers to switch to higher-value crops and products, helping drive the expansion of these once-niche categories over the past two decades.

Caviar is where China’s rise is most obvious. The FT says China now accounts for the majority of global production and exports of caviar. It highlights Kaluga Queen, a brand developed by experts working for China’s agriculture ministry, as the world’s largest supplier. Kaluga Queen produced 260 tonnes of caviar in 2024, which the FT puts at about 35 per cent of the global total.

The export story shows how quickly China has moved from being a player to becoming a force. The FT cites International Trade Centre data showing that in 2012 China exported about $12 million worth of caviar, around 14 per cent of global exports. By 2024, Chinese exports had climbed to $98 million, about 43 per cent of the global total. The FT notes that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine disrupted Russia’s trade, creating an opening that Chinese producers were able to seize.

What is interesting is that this export surge has happened even as domestic demand for luxury foods has faced pressure. The FT points to China’s property slowdown squeezing discretionary spending, and President Xi Jinping’s long-running anti-corruption campaign, which included crackdowns on official dining and reduced luxury consumption linked to government banquets. A consultant quoted in the FT argues that high-end food demand in China has historically been closely tied to government consumption, and when restrictions hit banqueting, producers found themselves sitting on stock and needing to sell overseas.

The FT also reports why Chinese producers have been able to expand quickly and undercut rivals: advantages cited include cheaper labour, looser animal welfare requirements, and faster production cycles and supply chains. Not every producer is chasing exports, though. The Anhui foie gras producer says domestic consumption is improving year by year and that while he exports some 100g tins to the Middle East, his main focus remains China’s huge internal market.

Macadamias offer a different lens: how government support can build a premium category from scratch. The FT describes Yunnan, near China’s border with Myanmar, where large areas are now lined with macadamia trees. The push began in the 1990s after macadamias were identified as a high-value crop that could lift rural incomes. Earlier attempts in coastal provinces were hit by typhoons, but Yunnan’s conditions worked better. Authorities offered subsidies, fertilisers, irrigation support and training to encourage smallholders to plant a nut that was not widely consumed in China at the time.

Even with constraints, the industry expanded sharply. The FT says Beijing’s emphasis on food security has shaped where macadamias are grown, reserving flatter fertile land for staples like rice and corn. Macadamias are pushed to hillsides, where yields are lower and harvesting is slower. Still, between 2016 and 2024, the FT reports that Yunnan’s share of global macadamia production rose to about 20 per cent from around 3 per cent. In 2023, China overtook Australia as the world’s second-largest producer and is now aiming to surpass South Africa.

Cherries show the same pattern in fruit. The FT says China is the world’s largest consumer of cherries and is projected to eat about 1.5 million tonnes this year, with 900,000 tonnes grown domestically and the rest imported mainly from Chile. Shandong became China’s biggest cherry-growing province after local authorities made the fruit a strategic growth sector and encouraged apple farmers to switch. Traders told the FT that cheaper domestic cherries have reset consumer price expectations, even if they do not compete directly with Chilean imports on timing.

In Yunnan, the FT highlights a different model: private ingenuity combined with state-backed infrastructure. In Midu county, an entrepreneur grows cherries in a place not naturally suited to them by using industrial cold storage to mimic the winter dormancy the trees need. The facilities are powered by cheap electricity from a nearby wind farm, and local authorities built pipelines to supply water.

Put together, the story is not simply that China is eating more expensive food. It is that China is learning to produce it, scale it, and make it cheaper. And once a country can do that with caviar, foie gras, macadamias and cherries, the next “rare” item on the menu starts looking a lot less secure.