WET MARKET WOES

According to a China Central Television (CCTV) report from late January, most of the initial Covid-19 cases in Wuhan originated from Huanan. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention detected the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen in 33 of the first 585 samples collected from the market. 　

Media reported that the market sold wild animals such as snakes, hedgehogs, deer and monkeys. 　

A NewsChina reporter visited Huanan on December 31, the day before authorities shut it down. It was visibly dirty and messy from the entrance, and the farther the reporter went inside, the damper and darker it got.　

Bloody innards of gutted fish covered the floor. Stalls were less than one meter apart. Dead poultry and wild animals were strewn in random piles.　

This reflected observations of the team of experts from the National Health Commission (NHC) sent to Wuhan to inspect the city’s sanitation measures on January 16. A member of the team told NewsChina on condition of anonymity they had visited eight wet markets and found Wuhan’s sanitation lagged behind other cities.　

Following the NHC inspection, Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang announced a 100-day campaign to regulate and upgrade the 400 markets that account for 70-80 percent of Wuhan’s produce sales.　

Wuhan was not alone in its efforts. Following the Covid-19 outbreak, city governments around China rushed to close or regulate their wet markets, worrying their poor sanitary conditions would hinder epidemic controls. 　

While the calls increased to rebuild or simply tear down wet markets, experts defended them as important sources of produce for city residents that cannot easily be replaced with supermarkets.　

“Although the different planning and operating standards have made wet markets difficult to manage, they are for the people’s well-being and should grow along with the overall development of a city,” Ma Zengjun, director of China Agriculture Wholesale Market Association and director of the World Union of Wholesale Markets, told NewsChina.　

“Early on, wet markets were State-owned, and following reform and opening-up, they were built for two purposes: increasing vegetable supply and providing employment for rural migrants,” Zhang Jingyi, secretary to the president of supermarket chain Yonghui Superstores, told NewsChina. 　

“During that time, wet markets served as an amenity for neighboring communities and were planned and managed by the government... The model differs from running a company and did not require a lot of monetary input,” he said.　

As economic reforms deepened, wet market operations diversified. Management increasingly became a challenge. According to Zhu, “poor sanitary conditions, crude management and loose supervision” are the most common failings of China’s wet markets. With their negative influence on urban environments growing, more experts are suggesting wet markets be replaced with supermarkets.　

These voices became even louder after 2000 when Fuzhou, Fujian Province introduced foreign and domestic supermarket chains, such as Trust-Mart and Yonghui, and turned wet markets into supermarkets. Media reports at the time praised the move, saying it gave residents more options, increased tax revenue and improved the city’s overall sanitation. 　

However, as other cities followed Fuzhou, problems quickly emerged. “Shanghai, for example, had 800 wet markets at the time, and it took us and another cooperative company five years to rebuild only 30... Chongqing took two years to rebuild a 400-stall wet market,” Zhang said. 　

“Renovation was actually very costly... around 20-30 percent more than building a brand new supermarket,” he added. 　

More importantly, statistics showed that wet markets are difficult to replace. According to an industrial report released by China Merchants Securities in April 2019, traditional wet markets were still the top source for retail fresh produce in China, accounting for 73 percent of the total market, followed by supermarkets at 22 percent. E-commerce only took up 3 percent.　

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics also showed that by 2018, China had 1,664 wet markets, 853 selling specific agricultural products and included nearly 47,000 stalls.　

“Wet markets are more convenient than supermarkets, and their produce is cheaper, fresher and more varied,” said Lang Guandi, a 68-year-old woman in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, adding that most people she knows prefer to shop at wet markets for farm produce. 　

“The number of stalls is actually decreasing due to spontaneous market adjustments such as the merging and expansion of stalls, but no matter how the policies change, people will never give up demand for wet markets,” said Sheng Qiang, an associate professor of arts and architecture at Beijing Jiaotong University who has tracked the changes in wet markets since 2005. 　

The standards covered layout, ventilation, sewage, stall area, product display and surrounding environment. With government support, wet markets built to code quickly sprang up all over the country following a pilot program in five cities, including Lanzhou, Gansu Province.　

Yet just one year later, media reports exposed how these modern markets were struggling to pull a profit. A 2010 report by the Lanzhou Morning Post revealed that many in Lanzhou saw few customers, with some even deserted, while nearby mobile street stalls saw bustling business. A Xinhua News Agency report from 2012 revealed that some of the wet markets in Shanxi Province’s Taiyuan, another pilot city, had gone bankrupt. Locals preferred the street stall grocers, who offered lower prices. 　

According to the Xinhua report, higher standards meant increased operation costs for vendors, which drove prices up. Residents valued price over sanitation and food safety. 　

Some analysts suggested that local governments should clamp down on unlicensed street stalls and increase funding to wet markets. Others argued that poor planning was to blame, such as locating a new wet market near a road already full of stalls.　

Ma Zengjun said planning ultimately determines how well a wet market will run. “We must set the proper density of wet markets for communities,” he told NewsChina. 　

Sheng Qiang agreed and called for zoning that better reflects the market. “Lands zoned for commercial use are often along busy roads, but I don’t think they are suited for wet markets, which see lower profits than other businesses,” he said. 　

According to Sheng, cities usually have different land quotas for wet markets. For example, Beijing allows a 50-square-meter wet market for every thousand people. Shanghai allots 120 square meters for every thousand. But Sheng warned that adhering to rigid quotas could end up with nothing but “wastes of land.”　

Wu Gang, president of Hangzhou Yihong Market Research Center, said updating a market’s “software,” such as food safety measures, fire controls and product tracking, is a crucial step that many renovations miss. 　

“The rebuilding of wet markets is a systematic project that includes both software and hardware. Wet markets nationwide are improving their hardware more or less... but it’s the software that determines whether a wet market has been rebuilt to spec,” Wu told NewsChina. “Furthermore, a market’s investment abilities, brand building and supervision greatly influence its operation,” he added.　

In a recent article, Zhu Can pointed out that wet markets are also in dire need of technology upgrades. “When demand for online shopping surged during the epidemic, wet markets were still using telephones and WeChat to fill orders,” he said. “This is definitely where wet markets fall short.”　

“We must introduce advanced technologies such as cloud computing and the Internet of Things to bring operations into the digital realm... For example, wet markets could cooperate with e-commerce platforms and delivery companies to create a distribution network,” he added. 　

Experts encourage such integration. A 2017 report by the Hangzhou Yihong Market Research Center showed how some supermarkets had combined dining and entertainment services, a model that could also work for wet markets, according to the report. 　

In a 2017 interview with sohu.com, Chen Songfu, chief marketing officer of Hangzhou Yihong Market Research Center, predicted that wet markets and supermarkets may integrate as customer demand diversifies and upgrades.　

During the same interview, Ma Zengjun cited a market he visited in the Netherlands as a perfect example. Located in Rotterdam, the Markthal (or “Market Hall”) is a large open-air market with 110 stalls that includes a residential complex of 228 apartments built above it and a four-story underground parking garage. Besides agricultural products, the market also sells wine and daily necessities.　

Ma believed that creating an industrial ecology that combines tourism, entertainment, shopping and dining would also reduce wet market operation costs. 　

“It’s important to enhance a wet market’s functions and enable it to integrate into the neighborhood and the whole city,” he told NewsChina. 　

“Famous wet markets, such as the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, the Hongshiban Farmer’s Market in Hangzhou and the Bashi Seafood Market in Xiamen each serve as display windows for their city’s culture and customs,” he added.