China is trying to set a unified organic food standard to
improve the authentication of such products.?
A press release from the organization committee for the China AG
Trade Fair (ATF) noted that China now has many authentication
organizations in this field, and the standards they adopt differ.
Some use standards of the United States, while some use Japanese
ones, and some European.
The ATF, sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, will open
Wednesday, featuring an exhibition of green food and organic food
products in the country.
Organic food is agricultural products grown without use of
genetic projects or chemical products, such as fertilizers and
pesticides.
China is now lagging behind in the production of organic food,
according to the release. By 2002, China had only some 50 varieties
of organic agricultural products growing on 700,000 hectares of
land.
But the export of organic food is ever increasing to US$25
million in 2001 from US$10 million in 1998.
In the world, the total land used for organic food production
has reached 23 million hectares. The consumption of organic food is
expected to reach US$100 billion in 2010, with the United States,
European countries and Japan as the major organic food markets.
(Xinhua News Agency?November 11, 2003)