A comprehensive analysis of China's plum industry: production dynamics, trade imbalances, technological innovation, and future directions.

One of the traditional "Five Fruits" () of China with origins traceable to the Huangdi Neijing (〚〛, c. 300 BCE), the plum (Prunus salicina Lindl.) constitutes both a cultural heritage crop and a strategically important horticultural commodity for rural revitalization and agricultural value-chain upgrading. This review systematically analyzes China's plum industry across four analytical dimensions-production dynamics, trade asymmetries, technological innovation, and strategic future directions-covering the 2021-2023 period, for which FAOSTAT reports complete validated statistics. Key quantitative findings include: China's 2023 cultivation area of 2,009 kha (>75% of global total), production of 6.89 Mt (55.3% of global output), a trade deficit expanding from USD 86 million (2018) to USD 267 million (2022), and import unit-prices averaging twice export unit-prices, with Chile alone supplying 84.45% of China's fresh plum imports. The review identifies five structural determinants of this import-export asymmetry (varietal quality mismatch, consumer preference divergence, postharvest infrastructure deficit, market segmentation, and international competitiveness gaps) and proposes a Technology Deployment Index revealing a severe gap between available and deployed technologies, particularly for biological control (<10% adoption despite >70% availability). A three-tier strategic roadmap (short-term 1-5 years, medium-term 5-10 years, long-term 10+ years) integrates breeding, cultivation, plant protection, processing, marketing, and policy priorities. This work fills a critical gap in the literature: whereas prior reviews have focused on specific aspects (phytochemicals, breeding, or postharvest physiology in isolation), no comprehensive analytical synthesis of the entire industrial value chain with explicit quantitative benchmarking and a structured strategic framework has been available for China's plum sector. The review provides actionable intelligence for policymakers, researchers, and industry stakeholders pursuing quality-driven industrial transformation under the Big Food Concept () strategic framework.