On May 10, as the Shunde Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Areas announced, "Jun'an Rutabaga", a vegetable with unique pickled flavor, has been listed on the 2022 National Famous, Special and Excellent New Agricultural Products. Markedly, on the 2022 list, "Jun'an Rutabaga" is the only one from Foshan.

Dried rutabaga (Photo by Zhou Zhuojie, Zhujiang Business)

So far, Shunde has 3 local products certificated on the category, along with eel and grass carp. These products will be marked with a tag "National Famous, Special and High-quality New Agricultural Products", which increases more brand recognition.

One of the major producers for rutabaga is Kaiqiao Food Factory. As a time-honored brand, Kaiqiao Food Factory holds one of the most orginal Pickling Technique. Ouyang Jianqing, the Chairman at Kaiqiao Food Factory is the representative inheritor of the Jun'an turnip pickling technique at the district level.

Rutabaga being peeled after wash (Photo by Zhou Zhuojie, Zhujiang Business)

According to Ouyang, the brand has explored 7 dishes and aims for an annual production of 200 thousand. Jun'an Rutabaga has made it way to many local old-brand restaurants in Foshan and Pearl River Delta (Li Xiji, Zhu Roupo Resturant), and many other countries - Singapore, Canada, Australia and more. In order to improve productivity, local producers built mass planting base in Jiangmen Xinhui, with approximately 466,666 ㎡. Foreseeably, rutabaga, once a shared taste among Shunde people, is able to develop into a full industrial chain.

Dried rutabaga in packaging jars (Photo by Zhou Zhuojie, Zhujiang Business)