For Apple Investors, a New Pick of the Crop

The 30-year-old administrative assistant said she has been buying more apples since she moved from a small eastern Chinese city two years ago to Shanghai to work for a U.S. company. "Chinese people are eating more and more fruit…as our lives get better," said Ms. Li, as she shopped in a grocery store. Indeed, wage income for urban households rose 13% in the first half compared with the year-ago period, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics.

As China consumes more apples, prices for the fruit are rising, driving up costs for juice makers. Above, a fruit stall in a market in Beijing.

Fresh apple consumption in China, which produces more than half of the global supply of the fruit, has soared 80% from the 2007-2008 crop year to the crop year ending in June 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That compares with growth of just 36% world-wide in the same period.

The surge is shaking up a small corner of the commodities world,….

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443890304578010454127914748.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTTopStories