From Nov. 13 to Nov. 17, the 17th China Food Safety Annual Conference and the 11th China Pickled Food International Expo will kick off in Dongpo District, Meishan City, Sichuan Province. Organized by the Peoples Government of MeiShan and under the theme of "Healthy Food, Shared Worldwide", this expo is centered on the Dongpo pickle, a slightly salty and crispy appetizer that is popular among gourmets at home and abroad.

This conference has invited nearly 400 exhibitors for participation, with 68 international participants from South Korea, Japan, Russia, etc. During the event, there will be roughly 1,600 political guests at home and abroad, expert scholars, responsible persons for associations and chambers of commerce, investors and exhibitors taking part in.

According to the sponsors, this event will incorporate a string of featured activities, including the 17th China Food Safety Summit, Pickled Food International Cooperation Summit Dialogue, sales exhibition of international/domestic pickled food, "A Taste of Meishan" Food Industry Production and Sales Meeting, JD online/offline "China Pickled Food International Expo", "International Pickle + Pickling Jar" Making Competition, live promotion on popular Chinese platforms, recommendation by world environmental volunteers, "A Taste of Meishan and A Taste of Home" tens of thousands of people QR code scanning recommendation, and Dongpo pickle public cultural activity.

Pickle is the vegetable fermented for enduring storage. In 2006, the American authoritative magazine, Health, put pickle first of the world five top healthy foods. Pickles are made every corner in the world, featuring distinctive treatment methods and flavors. The sour cucumber of France and the sour-sweet cabbage of Germany are well-famed examples. In China, Dongpo Pickle has the largest group of fans.

Dongpo Pickle was invented in Dongpo, a district of Meishan City that sits at 30 degrees of northern latitude and embraces a warm climate to offer unique bacteria required for the fermentation. Tasting crispy and tender, pickles produced here are rich in live lactic acid bacteria and good for whetting ones appetite and human spleens. Apart from common ingredients such as cabbages, cucumbers and carrots, the following apples, peaches and even meat can also be processed into pickles here.

Dongpo Pickles feature not only great flavor, but also healthy and environmental making process. First of all, environmental vegetables are used as ingredients to set up the first "Security Wall". By promoting bio-pesticide, expanding the use of organic fertilizer, and reducing the use of chemical fertilizer and pesticide, the district has realized the environmental transformation of vegetable planting bases. In the district, a car in full load of fresh vegetables could reach the pickle makers in Pickle Park within half an hour.

Dongpo District marks the only national-level green food/vegetable standardized production base county (prefecture) in Sichuan. To encourage pickle makers to directly do business with the planters, placing orders for vegetable ingredients on demand, the district has built a national-level green vegetable base with tens of thousands of mu. In 2018, 460,000 mu standardized pickle ingredient base has been available in Dongpo and surrounding areas, helping 150,000 farmers inside and outside the district register an annual income of RMB930mln, with 60 pickle makers offering jobs for 36,000 farmers living nearby and handing out RMB1.2bln worth of wages.

The National Pickle Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, Chinas first watchdog for pickles, has been set up in the China Pickle Town. The center has put forward the first pickle industry standard, taken lead in the formulation of international standards, such as the Specification and Testing Method for Pickle (Salted, Fermented Vegetable), and worked out many research achievements to fill in the domestic blank and lead the international industry. The industrial park, with China Pickle Town as the core, was successfully built into the first "National Modern Agriculture Park" in the end of 2018, ranking top among national counterparts.

The maturing pickle industrial chain has induced a large array of local star enterprises. As the leading Dongpo pickle maker, Ji Xiang Ju has joined hands with CJ Group, the largest food maker in South Korea, to establish a joint venture, thus turning competition into collaboration. Liji Group also makes remarkable performance -- Liji Pickled Fish Seasoner tops China in production and sales. Additionally, it has set up subsidiaries in New York and Los Angeles to radiate to North American, South American and European markets, making Dongpo pickle an option on international menus.

In 2019, Dongpo Pickles would have estimated sales revenue of more than RMB19bln. With its pickles sold to more than 100 countries and regions, such as the US, Canada, South Korea and Japan, Dongpo District has become the worlds largest pickle making base.