Tibet Business Daily, July 14, 2010

FAKE screams the headline on today's Tibet Business Daily.

Aromatic rice from Wuchang, Heilongjiang Province, is considered one of the best types of rice in China. In 2009, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine recognized the rice as a local brand, and it sells for considerably more than ordinary rice.

Just 800,000 tons of Wuchang Rice are produced every year, but up to 10 million tons are sold. According to reports by CCTV and Xi'an Evening News reprinted in today's Tibet Business Daily,rice processors in Xi'an have been adding fragrance to ordinary rice and selling it as Wuchang Rice:

Over the course of several days, this reporter visited a number of workshops in and around the Xi'an Grain and Oil Wholesale Market. Although much of the rice used by these processors bore the Wuchang label, it was actually a combination of rice from Hubei, Jiangsu, and the northeast that was masquerading as Heilongjiang Wuchang Rice.

To give the fake rice its aroma, a fragrance was added during processing. This was an open secret. Workers said that half a kilo of fragrance could aromatize ten tons of rice.

Managers in charge of several workshops said that because its price was cheaper than true Wuchang Rice, their rice sold quite well, and was mainly marketed in Henan, Shanxi, Sichuan, Qinghai, and Gansu.