China farmers cash in on organic craze
Monday, October 20, 2003 Posted: 10:24 AM EDT (1424 GMT)
SONGYUAN, China (Reuters) -- As consumers in the West grow increasingly hungry for organic food, Chinese farmers see a niche market worth cultivating.
In this corner of rural China, the word is out that more and more people abroad are willing to pay extra for what they believe is a healthier and more environmentally friendly diet.
Sales of organic food in the United States alone reached $11 billion in 2002 and are projected at $13 billion in 2003, and farmers are ready to get their hands dirty to reap the benefits.
"Farmers are very keen. They even pick out worms by hand," said Wang Tingshuang, general manager of a farm in the key northeastern agricultural province of Jilin.
"They earn more money. They don't have to worry about sales. They don't have to worry about storage. There's no reason why they shouldn't go for organic farming," he said.
Wang's farm, the Fuyu Farm for Returned Overseas Chinese, is a long way from any trendy restaurant with a healthy menu. But that is where its output could easily end up.
The farm, with 350 workers, is converting part of its 4,900-acre area for conventional crops into land for organic soybeans, corn or kidney beans for export to Japan, Europe or the United States.
Organic farmers work the land without the aid of chemical agents typically used by farmers to control insects and weeds or to fertilize fields.
Industry officials say foreign buyers pay Chinese farmers at least 30 percent to 50 percent more for organic food, knowing they can get large premiums from sales in developed countries.
Growing minority
In China, where farmers account for more than 70 percent of the 1.3 billion population, organic growers are a tiny minority. And these are no hippie farmers shunning conventional farming practices for the sake of the environment. They are poor farmers who could never easily afford expensive chemicals used in intensive farming, going organic to boost their meager incomes.
For Beijing, improving living standards of the largely impoverished rural work force is a key concern. So the government is understandably supportive of organic farming as a way of lowering input costs while tapping high-value markets.
There are no figures available for China's output of organic food, which is still an alien concept for most Chinese consumers, but demand in the West has been growing sharply.
In the United States, sales are projected to hit $20 billion by 2005, up from $13 billion forecast for this year.
In China's neighboring agricultural provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang, which together are about twice the size of Norway, there is a growing number of certified organic farms.
"This is a green area. We don't have to worry about pollution. The business has developed very quickly," said Liu Ning, a food scientist and trader at China Jilin Organic Food Co Ltd, the contractor of the Fuyu farm that was set up in 2001.
"The government is supportive as farmers can increase their income," Liu said, adding she had just returned from a farm near the border with North Korea where her company had harvested organic blueberries from a trial project.
Environmental risk
Organic farming systems are widely regarded as ecologically safe, although some environmentalists in China worry they could encroach on local forests and grasslands.
As experts in the organic field flock to Jilin and Heilongjiang to train and to contract local farmers, there are also some fly-by-night investors who risk damaging the sector by expanding it too rapidly and recklessly.
"It's a pity forests in Heilongjiang are being cut down in the name of organic projects," said an industry source, who preferred to stay anonymous. "If you compare the landscape now with that 10 years ago, it is completely different."
Despite environmental laws protecting native forests, the source said, some local officials were tempted to close their eyes as they could earn money from exporting natural resources.
While others said they had not seen such cases, they were aware of fragile grassland in Inner Mongolia being turned into organic farms. There was also land being replanted with trees after farmers cultivated more than they were authorized to.
"It is in a state of confusion. Now there are several dozen organic food traders in China alone," said Chen De Jiang, general manager of Heilongjiang Longqi Organic Food Development Co. Ltd.
"Some offer low prices for what they call organic products for the sake of winning business," Chen said at his company office in Harbin, the provincial capital of Heilongjiang.
The industry officials said foreign buyers were now sending more inspectors to farms or processing plants in China to enforce higher international standards of organic products.
In a scandal two years ago, Japanese importers found pesticide residue in frozen spinach shipped from China's coastal province of Shandong, which was labeled as organic.
"The damage has been much too serious. Many Japanese have turned away from China. It's all unfortunate," said Yutaka Takahashi, a certifier of organic products from Japan Organic & Natural Foods Association (JONA) headquartered in Tokyo.
In Harbin, on a tour through China, Takahashi added: "I've seen great farms. But you cannot control each and every single farmer ... The temptation is there to mix it up as organic products get better prices and you can't see the difference."
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