Sowing the seeds of domestic success

Compared with major importers of Chinese-grown fruits and vegetables, including the European Union, the United States and Japan, China's safety standards for agricultural products lag far behind.

For example, Japan uses the Positive List System for Agricultural Chemical Residues in Foods, which imposes strict requirements on the maximum limits for agricultural chemicals in foods. The maximum residues of 310 chemicals are listed for potatoes alone.

Anti-graft campaign sees icy wind blowing for high-end producers China's ongoing official austerity campaign has hit some producers of organic goods, after government departments and State-owned enterprises cut orders for expensive produce. The glut of organic products, including fruits and vegetables, has forced some farmers to explore market channels in Hong Kong and inland cities, such as the southwestern municipality of Chongqing, said Xin Wendong, director of the Agriculture. Forestry and Water Resources Authority in the Xiashan Ecological and Economic Development Zone in Weifang, Shandong province. "The gift market used to account for a huge number of orders from farmers. Some orders also came from enterprises and government department who purchased organic produce as staff benefits," he said. "But now that's no longer the case." However, he isn't lamenting the loss of the gift market channel for farmers. "It wasn't sustainable. Demand in supermarkets has been relatively slow to develop, but it will benefit the industry in the long run," he said. Xiashan is home to 26 agricultural parks that produce organic products, and has 4,700 hectares that have been certified, or are awaiting certification, to produce organic agricultural products. Distributors have also felt the icy wind of the anti-graft campaign. A market manager with Beijing Dingsheng Haoyun Trade Co, who declined to be named, said the market for organic produce has been sluggish this year. "Farmers are no longer willing to put their products in the gift market because of sluggish sales. That's why the prices of these products are rising," he said. Zhang Ke, manager of Xinbeihai Modern Agriculture Co, an organic vegetable producer in Weifang, said he sees the anti-graft campaign as an opportunity to diversify market channels. Zhang's company has developed a membership system whereby households pay about 3,600 yuan ($588) per annum to have 2 kilos of various organic vegetables delivered to their door every week. "Indeed, the government departments and State-owned enterprises have been cutting their orders. But that has enabled us to sell our products to individual households," he said. By Xu Wei

Some experts and officials have called for the domestic product safety standards to be raised to ensure consumer safety.

At a forum in 2012, Dong Xide, deputy director of the Agricultural Department of Shanxi province, said that an item destined for export to Japan had to pass more than 240 tests, but only a handful of tests were required if the same item was to be sold domestically.

Dong said China should implement the same standards, and supply the same high-quality produce to both domestic and foreign consumers, according to a report in the South China Morning Post.

According to Li Xin, a professor who studies agricultural standardization at Northwest A&F University in Yangling, Shaanxi, China's low standards of product safety are the result of a lack of standardization in agriculture.

"China has a very short history of standardization in the agricultural sector. Every aspect of the industry comes up short, from the awareness of farmers to the number of talents," he said.

Li said the quality standards for agricultural produce, especially fruits and vegetables, cover three categories: organic, "green", and pollution-free produce. "Of the three, organic products have the strictest safety standards, while pollution-free products have the lowest," he said.

"The problem lies in the fact that farmers have little awareness of the importance of standardization, and the country has few talents that can popularize agricultural standardization among the farmers." He added that consumers also have very limited knowledge of the safety standards for agricultural products: "If the market for high-quality products were truly developed, it would motivate the farmers to provide them."

Regional efforts

Compared with domestic suppliers, the Chinese authorities have built a quality control system for exports that is specifically designed to meet the standards in other countries, which usually have much higher requirements with regard to the use of pesticides and fertilizers.

To date, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has certified 144 county-level areas as national-level demonstration areas. A string of measures, including enhanced cooperation between different government departments, strict controls on the use of pesticides, and stringent production standards, have been enforced in these areas to ensure that the products meet standards overseas.

In Anqiu, farmers use formula fertilizers to ensure that the products meet the requirements of the destination countries. Farmers are also required to put Quick Response code labels on products to ensure that each individual packet can be traced to the farmer that supplied it.

Yuan Li, deputy Party chief of Anqiu, said local efforts to produce high-quality goods for export have resulted in an improvement in the overall quality of the region's agricultural products.

"Producing agricultural goods is not like producing items in a factory, where quality control can be managed in-house. Agricultural production involves a large number of farmers, and a whole system, including food standards, regulations, and the coordination of different government departments," he said.

Li, of Northwest A&F University, said the role of demonstration areas in pushing forward standardization of the agricultural sector should not be underestimated.

"Agriculture is highly dependent on natural conditions, and that's why it's easy to encourage the production of a single product across a whole region," he said.

Anqiu Foreign Trade Foods' Liu said the raising of the bar for the standards of agricultural products in her region has helped boost the quality of the company's products. "Without the regional regulations on pesticide use, we would have to build isolation belts between our farmland and other people's," she said, adding that regional management has also made life easier for agricultural processors because they can easily obtain safe products from nearby farms.

Challenges remain

However, many exporters have conceded that several challenges have yet to be addressed if they are to further exploit the domestic market. For example, most of the products sold in destination countries bear the logos and labels of foreign food companies, and not those of the Chinese producers. This has resulted in a lack of domestic awareness of Chinese companies, despite the excellence of their products. "We need to shore up our brands and distribution channels, although that would mean costs would increase," Wang, of Genseida, said.

Li Binglong, a professor at the College of Economics and Management at China Agricultural University in Beijing, said branding and marketing are crucial steps for agricultural exporters looking to break into the domestic market. "That means more brands should be established to help farmers face up to market challenges," he said.

Another restraining factor is the lack of effective refrigeration systems, or "cold chains", whereby perishable goods can be stored for long periods prior to sale, according to officials.

Qiu Haifang, deputy mayor of Anqiu, said the large sums required mean few farmers are willing to invest in cold-chain facilities, despite the obvious benefits, especially in terms of sheltering producers from market risks and extreme fluctuations in prices.

"Refrigeration is a crucial part of the vegetable industry if we want to further expand our retail chains. The authorities can provide the farmers with guidance in that regard, but ultimately it's up to producers to invest and beef up their production capacities. If they don't do that, it could be very hard for them to succeed in the domestic market," she said.

Contact the writer at xuwei@chinadaily.com.cn