Fennel is one of the essential spices. Gansu Province is the primary production area of fennel in China. Our team conducted a comprehensive investigation in early September, focusing on the core production areas, encompassing planting, harvesting, processing, and food safety aspects. This report analyzes the findings of the 2024 fennel harvest.
Production Volume:
Stimulated by the high market prices in 2023, the planting area for fennel in 2024 has increased significantly, leading to an estimated increase in fennel production of over 30% for the year.
Quality:
Due to frequent rainfall during the 2024 harvest season, the fennel grains are smaller than usual, with poor appearance and higher yellow shell content. Overall, the quality is inferior to normal years.
Planting:
Fennel is primarily cultivated in Gansu, China, within a temperate continental climate characterized by cold winters, hot summers, low rainfall, and large diurnal temperature differences. The planting areas are mostly located at altitudes ranging from 1,250 to 2,100 meters, with minimal industrial and mining enterprises nearby, ensuring a clean ecological environment.
Fennel is propagated through seeds, with most farmers adopting integrated sowing methods, while some small-scale farmers use manual sowing. The sowing rate varies from 0.5 to 1.5 kg per acre, depending on the sowing method. The entire field is sown without intercropping. The sowing time differs based on local climatic conditions, typically between mid-March and mid-April. Fennel varieties can be categorized into early, medium, and late maturity, primarily distinguished by their growth cycles and grain sizes.
Daily Management:
Fennel requires irrigation, fertilization, weeding, and pest control. Irrigation is mostly done through drip or flood irrigation. Fertilization includes base fertilizer and topdressing during the seedling stage, applied through broadcasting or drip irrigation. Weeding involves pre-sowing herbicide application and manual weeding during the seedling stage. Common pests and diseases include root rot, aphids, and green worms.
Harvesting and Trading:
Fennel plants exhibit various flower and fruit forms simultaneously, making it impossible to wait for all fruits to mature before harvesting. When most fennel grains are mature and full, they are harvested on sunny days using specialized machinery. The harvested fennel is then sun-dried for 4-5 days, avoiding rain or dew to prevent discoloration and high yellow shell content. After drying, the fennel is threshed and lightly cleaned.
Initial Processing:
Farmers stack the threshed fennel on the ground or tarpaulin, waiting for buyers to inspect and price the product. Buyers then transport the fennel in bulk, woven bags, or lined woven bags to their warehouses for simple classification and stacking. Initial processing involves screening with comprehensive sieve machines, including air separation, vibrating screens, and gravity separators, before packaging into 25kg or 50kg bags for market distribution.
Food Safety Risk Assessment:
· Traceability Risk: Moderate risk due to the fragmented farming and trading system, limiting traceability to the region of origin and making it difficult to trace individual farmers.
· Pesticide Residue Risk: Low risk, as low-toxicity pesticides like imidacloprid, acetamiprid, and beta-cyfluthrin are used, but irregular application may lead to residue issues.
· Initial Processing Risk: Low risk, as hair, dust, and stones can be mixed in during drying and screening, but these impurities are removed through subsequent cleaning processes.
· Storage Risk: Moderate risk due to potential plasticizer migration in woven bags and contamination from livestock in basic storage environments.
Overall, fennel raw materials are considered relatively safe in terms of food safety.
Food Safety Risk Control Measures:
· Pre-harvest Research: Conduct field research, sampling, and testing during the harvest season to assess fennel quality and food safety.
· Raw Material Sampling and Testing: Sample and test each batch of raw materials upon arrival, following GB/T 12729.2-2020 standards, and reject unqualified materials.
· Classified Storage and Low-Temperature Preservation: Store raw materials by category to prevent cross-contamination and use 5-15°C cold storage to maintain quality.
· Regular Quality Inspections: Conduct regular sensory and physicochemical tests to monitor quality changes.
