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As concerns over African swine fever (ASF) in China continue, measures have been taken to regulate the inter‐provincial transport of live hogs, yet entrenched non‐chilled fresh pork consumption habits make it challenging to expand the chilled pork in the market. To address this issue, our study employed multiple rounds of random Nth‐price auction experiments to measure participants' quality perceptions of, and willingness to pay (WTP) for chilled pork under different packaging, storage temperature and duration labels. By comparing the results with physicochemical lab testing outcomes, we confirmed the existence of a quality perception bias among the participants. Notably, consumers who regularly consume chilled meat demonstrated a higher average WTP, while consumers born in the 1980s exhibited significantly higher bids. Furthermore, access to emerging purchase channels positively influences consumer WTP for chilled meat, particularly through branded product purchasing experiences. Consequently, it is recommended that the public sector takes steps to balance the distribution of pork production capacity and supports the development of cold chain transportation technology to meet the growing demand for high‐quality chilled pork, especially from younger consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The illegal use of gutter oil (GO) as cooking oil is a serious food fraud problem in China and has raised widespread concerns. With the popular use of internet, Koubei, a food ordering app, launched a campaign that every restaurant could pledge on the platform that it is GO free. This paper evaluates whether consumers value the GO-free feature reflected on their willingness-to-pay (WTP) to the claim. Results show the GO-free claim receives a positive WTP, and consumers are even more sensitive to the GO-free pledged by small businesses and independent restaurants. For policy implications, results confirm the advantages that the online platforms have in providing food safety information and alleviating the market failure caused by asymmetric information. It will complement the governments' efforts in preventing GO use and other fraud behaviors in food markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the integration of China's cotton market with the international market, especially the U.S. market. Investigating the futures prices from the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in the U.S. and the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (ZCE) in China with several time series models, we find that a long-run cointegration relationship exists between these two series. The two markets share price transmissions, and based on results from an Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (ARCH) model, we find their price volatilities are similar. We argue that China's recent exchange rate reform and its gradual liberalization in bilateral cotton trade since it joined World Trade Organization have had important impacts on these futures markets. Based on these findings, several important economic and policy implications are derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented wherein the editor discusses various reports published within the issue including a perspective of China's corn import, a discussion on the market potential for U.S. meat in China and another on China's worldwide investment in agricultural resource.