Many cities across southern China are known for the art of relaxing. Chengdu in Sichuan province is the tea house capital. Guangzhou is the birthplace of dim sum, a time to share steamed dumplings and chew the fat with friends. And in Haikou, the capital of Hainan province, people have been chewing the betel nut for centuries.
You don’t have to walk far in Haikou to find a vendor. The small, hard, green fruits are sold in little piles alongside fresh coconuts and bottled water at pretty much any convenience store, for about five yuan (£0.52) a piece. Some vendors, mostly women, sit by the side of the road to dish out betel nuts to passing drivers on mopeds, nearly all of them men.
Betel nuts, the fruit of the areca palm, are popular across Asia, particularly in India, which produces about half of the world’s crop. Excessive consumption is linked to oral cancer and tooth decay, but they also produce a natural high, thanks to the presence of arecoline, a natural (and carcinogenic) stimulant in the nuts. Like other legal highs, they are enduringly popular. A Chinese folk song written in the 1930s, still sung on state television today, tells the story of a young couple who fall in love on a mountain while picking betel nuts from the tree.
About 95% of China’s betel nuts are produced in Hainan, a tropical island that is China’s southernmost province. The warm, humid climate is well suited to growing areca palm trees. More than 2.3 million people are involved in the betel nut industry, according to state media, accounting for more than one-fifth of the island’s population. By some estimates, the planting, growing and selling of the fruit accounts for 8% of Hainan’s total GDP. Between 2010 and 2021, the size of the land used for betel nut farming in Hainan more than doubled.
Far away from Hainan, there have been efforts to crack down on betel nuts in the name of public health. Since 2020, it has been illegal to sell them as a food product. In 2022, a singer called Fu Song died of oral cancer at the age of 36. Before his death he said on social media that his illness was caused by his betel nut habit, and urged others to stay away. Some cities have urged shops not to sell the nuts to children. In Xiamen, 750 miles away along China’s southern coast, betel nuts are banned. Some media reports call it “the fruit of the devil”.
The message hasn’t got to Haikou. Reports of negative health effects are “just rumours”, says a woman surnamed Fu, who has been selling betel nuts for more than 30 years. “It’s a fruit, there’s nothing harmful to the body,” she says. “It’s actually good for your teeth.”
But in the sluggish post-pandemic economy, business is starting to slow, even by sleepy Haikou’s standards.
A few shops down from Fu, a woman whose surname is Wang also sells betel nuts. Like Fu, she’s heard nothing of the restrictions elsewhere in China. But she is ambivalent about the industry’s future. “These past two years have been really bad economically. Honestly, it’s been tough,” she says.
“In the past, we might sell 10 to 20 catty [5-10kg] per day, but now we’re lucky if we sell five. The volume went down not because people no longer like betel nuts, it’s more about not having enough money to buy betel nuts and have proper meals at the same time. So consumption has gone down quite a bit compared to a few years ago.”
But while business is slow, the number of people trying to get into the trade is increasing, Wang says, in part because there are so few jobs in other industries.
Youth unemployment has been stubbornly high since the pandemic. In February, the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds in China’s cities reached 16.9%, a two-year high. The overall urban unemployment rate was 5.4%, also a two-year high.
Many young people, including graduates, have responded to the turndown by returning to their home towns and taking on menial work or “lying flat”.
That has created competition for middle-aged sellers such as Wang and Fu. “In the past, people who sold betel nuts were mostly older, in their 50s or 60s,” Wang said. “But now, a lot of young people in their 20s or 30s are selling. It’s because there’s not much work.”
Nationwide, the betel nut industry is expected to keep growing, in part because improved technology is increasing yields on industrial farms. But a market research report published in March by China Research Network, a corporate intelligence firm, predicts that the price of betel nut will be pushed down by increased competition among sellers, meaning that big, industrialised producers may survive at the expense of street-side vendors. China Research Network also predicts that the health warning about betel nut may finally start to catch on this year.
Wang’s shop sells drinks and other snacks, but she thinks the betel nut business may finally decline. “There are almost no customers. No one has money. They need to save money for food first before buying betel nuts.”
Additional research by Jason Tzu Kuan Lu
