Despite the Spring Festival holiday, workers in a flavoring company in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province continue to package their fermented bean curd products.

The preserved bean curd, or “furu” in Chinese, is a traditional flavoring for food. Red or white in color, the unique fermented bean curd in Shaoxing city started being exported more than a century ago.

Last year, Shaoxing exported 1,233 tonnes of fermented bean curd products with a total value of 2.86 million U.S. dollars, up 11.6 percent and 11.3 percent respectively. Hong Kong is the major importer, while Europe and North America are emerging markets.

With soybeans the main material, the traditional craft of Shaoxing fermented bean curd has a set of complicated procedures and strict requirements on temperature and humidity in production. Large bean curd pieces for export need to be sealed in pots for one to two years for post-fermentation.

“A local yellow rice wine is used in the process, contributing to the special flavor,” said Xie Xiaoben, deputy general manager of Xianheng Foodstuff in Shaoxing.

“No nitrite is produced during the processing,” Xie added, dispelling concerns.

The basic processing craft for fermented bean curd has not changed much in a century.

“More and more westerners like the bean curd,” said Ren Mingxing, an entry-exit inspection and quarantine official in Shaoxing.

There has never been any food safety problem with the exported bean curd, which has won overseas trust for Chinese products, according to Ren.

Andy
McDonald MP, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, commenting on
reports that reforms to the rail fare system will be trialled this May, said:

“It’s
welcome news that simplifying fares will be trialled but it is clear that this
is just tinkering around the edges. 

“Privatised rail has created a fragmented system with a jumble of operators
offering a complicated array of fares for passengers to navigate. 

“Passengers don’t want to shop around for tickets, they want to get from A to B
for the cheapest price. This is why Labour will bring our railways back into
public ownership, creating an integrated national network with simple and
affordable fares for all.”

Scientists from the British Geological Survey (BGS) and University of Southampton have published a seamless onshore-offshore bedrock geology map of the eastern half of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.

John
McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, commenting in the Resolution
Foundation report out today, which shows that Britain is on course for the
biggest increase in inequality since Thatcher, said:

 “This
report is damning of the unfair economic policies of this Chancellor, as the
gap between working families and a wealthy few gets wider, with the poor
getting poorer and the rich getting richer. It demonstrates to us all once
again that the economy under a Tory government will be rigged for those at the
top, with poor and middle income households
facing their worst Parliament for income growth since the 1960s.

“Labour
called on the Government at the Autumn Statement to end the unfair cuts to in
work benefits, whilst they were going ahead with tax giveaways to a wealthy
minority, but Philip Hammond chose to carry on with the work of his
predecessor.

“It is becoming clearer by the day that
working families will be forced to pay for a Tory Brexit that favours the rich
and not the rest of us, as our country faces its biggest rise in inequality
since Margaret Thatcher.

“The
next Labour government would rewrite the rules of our economy in favour of
working families, with a real living wage expected to be £10 an hour by 2020,
and proper investment to ensure no one and no community is left behind.”