DAVID BARBOZA:Export Apple of China's Eye Is, er, Apples

There are so many apples in China � which over the last two decades turned itself into the world's biggest apple grower � that the world price for apple juice concentrate has been depressed for nearly five years. Apple juice makers in the United States purchase more of China's cheap concentrate every year � though they do not like to talk about it � and every year American apple growers complain of devastating losses.

But do not expect growers in Xian, or any other part of China, to abandon their apple orchards.

"Yeah, prices are low, but I'm sticking with my apples," says Wang Aimin, a 40-year-old grower in Lining, a village about 40 miles northwest of Xian. "Life is better now. I used to grow corn and wheat, but you couldn't live on that."

These are the economics of modern agriculture in China � and the market psychology of the modern Chinese farmer. Even a deeply depressed market is preferable to what farmers suffered through for decades, when they could not expect to make even $1 a day selling crops to local markets.

So the after-effects of socialism are that they aren't thinking of diversification. And as the article notes, American farmers want protection. Of course the article doesn't tell us that means keeping prices high for American consumers.