Suppliers urged to adopt same standards as for HK
Consumers in Beijing and South China's Guangdong Province can enjoy high-quality fresh food of the same standard as that exported to Hong Kong as early as in October, as part of a program to boost domestic consumption and enhance food safety, a trade promotion agency said Thursday.
The International Brand Management Center (IBMC), which is affiliated to the Ministry of Commerce, unveiled a program on Thursday to help mainland food enterprises that currently supply to Hong Kong enter the mainland's high-end market, with the aim of supplying to 100 cities and realizing annual revenue of 40 billion yuan ($6.4 billion) in the mainland by 2017.
Currently there are more than 8,000 mainland food companies, supplying around 90 percent of vegetables, 95 percent of live pigs and all fresh beef to the Hong Kong market, with annual revenue of around 50 billion yuan, according to the IBMC.
"The launch of the program does not mean mainland suppliers will reduce the supply to Hong Kong; the supply to the mainland will come from their existing surplus capacity and newly added capacity," Xu Jing, head of IBMC, said at an industry seminar held in Beijing.
Experts said the gap in the food quality between the mainland and Hong Kong is mainly due to the difference in regulatory standards.
Xu said suppliers that join in the program need to conform to the Hong Kong standards and set the same price for both markets.
The prices of vegetables supplied to Hong Kong are usually 20 to 40 percent higher than those sold in the mainland on average, but are lower than those in the mainland's e-commerce platforms that target mid- to high-end consumers, according to research from the IBMC.
Zhong Kai, an expert with the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment, doubted whether mainland consumers could really enjoy the high-quality food at the same prices as in Hong Kong.
To guarantee the low prices of the food supply to Hong Kong, the government offers large subsidies. But on a purely commercial basis, it is doubtful whether the low prices can be sustained, he said at the seminar.
How to get suppliers to abide by standards set by Hong Kong in the mainland is also a challenge, said Luo Yunbo, a professor at the China Agricultural University, suggesting that the IBMC should set up a well-functioning regulatory system for the program.
"If the program is fully implemented, it will help enhance the food safety level in the mainland," he noted.
