HISTORY AND STATUS OF RASPBERRY CULTURE IN CHINA

There is a very rich resource of wild Rubus in China, but raspberry has been cultivated for only about 100 years. During the last five years, the area of commercial raspberry production in China has increased year by year, to over 1000 ha in 2006. The main regions for raspberry production are in the Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Jilin, and Shandong provinces. The main cultivars are ‘Wucihong’, ‘Meiguo 22’, ‘Boyne’, ‘Fertodi Zamatos’ and ‘Tulameen’. Yield is about 7.5-15.0 tonnes/ha. The largest amount of production is exported frozen, and lesser amounts are used for juice and wine, and less again for fresh market sales. Micropropagation of raspberry was successfully initiated in 1990 and used commercially in production in 1997 by Shenyang Agricultural University. The raspberry is becoming a new fruit industry in China with its potential for high nutritional value and good prospects in the market.