Millennials Still Forage — Gen Z Has Turned Wild Veg into Business

From nostalgia to commerce

Millennials (the "post‑80s") still trek into the hills for nostalgia and the taste of spring. But reportedly the new wave — the post‑95s and post‑00s — has turned foraging into a business: organising "digging" groups and maps, livestreaming straight from the pick and selling to urban consumers. Short video platforms and e‑commerce have catalysed the shift. Dingdong Maicai (叮咚买菜) launched 125 spring wild‑veg SKUs, Hema (盒马) reports wild‑veg sales up about 50%, and Trip.com (携程) says searches for farm‑pick experiences rose roughly 50% — a farm‑to‑feed‑the-feed‑economy loop.

The scale is no longer trivial. According to the China Forestry Yearbook, mountain and forest vegetable production rose from about 215,000 tonnes in 2004 to 444,236 tonnes in 2023, a historical high and a 10.6% year‑on‑year jump in 2023. Listed company Gaishi Food (盖世食品) reported roughly RMB 34m in revenue from wild‑veg products in 2024 — about 6.4% of total sales — with project gross margins near 17%, a sign that specialty processing and branding can be profitable.

Industry bottlenecks and policy pressures

But turning wild greens into a stable industry is hard. Freshness is fragile: it has been reported that post‑harvest loss rates in China’s fruit and vegetable sector remain high — industry estimates put average losses at 20–25% versus roughly 5% in developed markets — and cold‑chain gaps are the primary culprit. Prices swing wildly: first‑flush toon (香椿) can fetch tens of yuan per jin one week and be near worthless the next. Without traceability, differentiation or scale, many suppliers are forced into damaging price competition.

Regional specialisation and regulation will shape winners. Northeast forestry, high‑plateau summer vegetables in the northwest, and facility‑driven processing in the east each play different roles; local governments have begun limiting wild harvesting with permits and quotas to protect ecosystems — it has been reported that enforcement is increasing. Geopolitics and trade policy also matter: export opportunities and foreign demand can be constrained by sanitary standards and broader trade tensions, while inward investment in cold chain and processing will be decisive for whether wild‑veg stays a seasonal hobby or becomes a resilient, branded sector. Who ends up foraging and who ends up profiting? For now, both scenes coexist — but the rules of the market are changing fast.