Pleasing the bugs in your stomach
Organic Growth in China - By Bruce, May 08, 08
Last week's invitation to an organic barbeque and tour of the Kiwing Fine Foods farm an hour out of Shanghai aroused curiosity and appetites in equal measures. But hungry for information for you, beloved reader, the trip was dutifully made.
Denise, who took over the 33 hectare farm a year ago and decided to go organic, offered encouraging insights into China's organic industry. Currently supplying to various top Shanghai restaurants, Kiwing will soon expand into private ordering and delivery, pending organic accreditation.
The idea of organic food in China may make cynics giggle and hippies snarl, but the reality is that organic agriculture is a growing niche in China's controversial food supply.
There are several reasons behind this growth, including recent food safety scandals and the rising purchasing power of China's urban and middle class populations. Not surprisingly, it's foreign tummies that are growling loudest for organic foods, fuelling growth in China's organic industry.
The lower yield of, and booming international demand for organic produce has created yet another export market for China to dominate. The lure of export revenue promises to overcome the flaccid local regulatory framework by inspiring local organic standards to align more closely with those abroad.
How organic can it be ... in China? Conversion to organic practice takes time. Current local standards stipulate a three-year chemical free lapse. Thereafter random testing of the soil, water sources and other production factors are spot tested to avoid (further) embarrassing international discoveries of synthetic residue on "organic" exports, potentially murderous to the fledgling industry. Most of the country's biggest organic enterprises, indeed State owned, are in areas like Qinghai, not choked by pollution and rarely requiring conversion.
In China low food prices are a political imperative. Given 1/7th of the world
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