Shanxi province is promoting a Mature Vinegar China Tour, which travelled to the city of Dalian, Liaoning province, on Oct 24, to the Xinghai Exhibition Center, after a successful show in Guiyang, Guizhou province, in September.

This is a part of the China Light Industry Expo 2013, and has the Shanxi Commerce and Finance departments as hosts and Shanxi Vinegar Industry Association running the show. The five-day event had eight Shanxi vinegar producers taking part with top-quality vinegars that are preservative-free.

At the event's opening ceremony, Cao Wenjie, head of the Association, introduced the Shanxi vinegar brands and described their sour, fragrant, sweet, and gentle taste and how they are one of "Four Famous Vinegars", the others being Zhenjiang vinegar (Jiangsu province), Baoning (Sichuan province), and Hongqu (Fujian province). There are more than 300 vinegar producers in Shanxi, making 800,000 tons of vinegar annually, accounting for 25 percent of the national output. Mature Shanxi vinegar has a more-than-2,000-yr history.

Shanxi began some preferential policies to support its time-honored brands, back in 2009, with help from the Finance Department, Economy and Information Technology Commission, and other departments, to open more specialty stores across the country and to provide from 50,000 to 100,000 yuan ($8200 to $16,400) in financing. By the end of last year, it had 350 stores, many in Dalian.

This Shanxi Mature Vinegar China Tour has visited Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen, and other places, since 2010 and has helped popularize the vinegar. At the Dalian show, many people visited to get a taste of the vinegar and learn about how it is produced, the Shanxi's Jincu Technology Co gave 232,000-yuan worth of mature vinegar as a gift to 8,000 sanitation workers.

Edited by Roger Bradshaw