Two-year-old Niu Niu's favourite snack is the lollipop sold for
0.1 yuan (1.25 cents) at the village store. It turns his tongue a
different colour, but his mother says at least it's cheap.
"No problem," said the peasant woman in Northeast China's Jilin
Province. "Rural children aren't that prone to diseases."
Their village in Fanjiatun Town in the city of Gongzhuling is
not the poorest in China, but the locals are very cautious with
money. Very often, they'd rather buy cheaper items of poorer
quality rather than better things at higher prices.
This pleases the storekeeper Li Yulin. Li said 80 percent of his
branded cigarettes are fake and he sells mouldy biscuits for 4 yuan
(US$0.5) a kilo. "Half the downtown supermarket price," he
said.
He never fears the villagers may sue him, because everyone is
used to that. "They readily get what they need even if they know
it's fake."
Officials are sent by the market watchdog to drop in from time
to time for a routine check, but nobody seems to take quality too
seriously. "In case anyone does, I'd just treat him to dinner and
everything's settled at the table."
As the urban people are increasingly aware of consumers rights,
fake goods are flowing into the rural market instead, posing
threats to the country's 900 million farmers.
Between 2003 and 2004, 13 babies died of malnutrition and 189
others fell sick in Fuyang city, East China's Anhui Province, after
being fed with milk powder of low-quality infant formula that was
widely believed to be the best baby food available on the local
market, the Ministry of Commerce said.
Besides, fake seeds, fertilizers and pesticides have brought
about heavy economic losses to the rural families each year, it
said.
A survey conducted by the ministry among 10,000 farmers last
year showed at least 75 percent of them had bought fake goods some
time in their lives.
The survey also found that farmers, who make up 70 percent of
the Chinese population, contribute just 35 percent to the country's
total retail sales, with per capita daily consumption of 6 yuan (75
cents).
But China's rural market is actually a "gold mine" as the
farmers' per capita annual income has soared from 500 yuan
(US$62.5) in 1985 to 3,000 yuan (US$375) in 2004, said Liao
Jiancheng, an official in charge of market development with the
Ministry of Commerce.
"So the main problem for the rural consumers today is where and
how they can buy quality goods," he said.
China has listed the building of a sound rural market system as
an important job in its building of new countryside, according to
this year's No. 1 Document, which is issued by the central
government annually in addressing rural issues relating to farmers'
rights and interests.
The Ministry of Commerce started to build a huge rural retail
network in 2005, which contain 250,000 outlets covering at least
half of all the Chinese villages. The network is set to be
completed by the end of 2007.
The General Administration for Industry and Commerce has also
vowed to extend its hotline 12315 from cities to village-run stores
to hear rural consumers' complaints and help victims of fake goods
claim their losses.
There is still a long way to go before Chinese farmers can stand
up and fight for their own rights, says Wu Gaohan, deputy
secretary-general of China Consumers Association. "We need to
change their shopping mentality so that they won't prefer cheap but
fake goods to quality commodities."
(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2006)