Seedless grape sales in a cultivation center in Shandong Province have been hard hit by hearsay alleging the fruit is produced with contraceptive drugs. In a video, a grape seller was heard saying that all grapes without seeds are the result of contraceptive drugs, making the fruit harmful to children and possibly causing sterilization.
Farmers in the city's Milukuang village, which grows 66 hectares of grapes, said the local fruit purchasing station sold 15,000 kilograms of grapes every day in the past but now sells only one-tenth of that after the 40-second video went viral.
Prices for grapes also decreased sharply, from around 9 yuan per kilogram to less than 6 yuan. It's estimated that the rumour could cut a household's average income by half.
Jiang Kequn, director of the village's agricultural cooperative, said seedless grapes were developed in recent years through the use of gibberellin, which regulates growth and has nothing to do with contraceptive drugs.
Some farmers suspect competitors growing seeded-grapes intentionally made up the story.
On their official Weibo accounts, People's Daily and other media outlets across China have also called on people not to believe the rumor.
(1 Chinese Yuan=0.15 USD)
Source: china.org.cn
