With all the talk of toxins and contaminated food, organic produce seems to be the only safe food choice. A domestic market with a preference for organic produce is definitely on the rise in China and surprisingly exports have also fueled its growth.
The main pitfalls in this direction seem to be a lose regulatory framework and confusion about what exactly constitutes organic food. Confusion of names, including “non-pollution” food and “green food,” which would not be considered truly organic in the West can also be found.
China has 5.7 million acres of certified organic farmland, according to the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, although that is less than 1 percent of the country’s total farmed land.
Sales grew an estimated 50 percent last year, but a lot of China’s organic produce is actually exported. A clutch of dedicated shops have sprung up in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities, and major supermarket chains are also starting to offer organic fruits, vegetables, meat and washing up liquid too.
While tales of heavy metals in vegetables, poisonous dyes in eggs and fake drugs have been a staple diet of the Chinese press for the past few years, it has taken pet deaths in the United States to draw world attention to the problem.
Fake labels have proved to be a headache for organic suppliers. People no longer know whether to believe the labels or not. Probably foolproof certification needs to be put into place to protect forgery of labels. I for one would not be sure of anything that comes from China.
Source: Reuters
