Visitors look at products at Hona Organic's booth at China International Organic Food Fair on May 28, 2014.(Photo/chinadaily.com.cn)
A craze for organic food is taking China by storm as the country's middle-class gains stronger purchasing power and awareness of healthy living and dietary concerns increase.
Urbanites, including white-collar workers and young moms, are seeking alternative ways to buy safe and healthy products, partly spurred by waves of food safety scandals.
Liu Rui, a frequent of Beijing's Ole supermarket, said even though the imported organic food can be expensive, it's an investment she's willing to make for her family's health.
Consumers like Liu have made China the fourth-biggest consumer of organic products in the world. "China is a market that attracts great attention from the world's organic traders," Wang Yunhao, director of China Green Food Development Center (CGFDC), said at an organic food fair on May 28.
The sales volume of organic products in China is around 20 to 30 billion yuan every year, according to Wang.
The three-day China International Organic Food Fair (Biofach China) attracted 329 exhibitors from all over the world in its ninth consecutive year in Shanghai.
Big players in organic food market like Denmark, Germany and Australia have eyed the potential market and put on a show of their dairy, meat and wine products on the second-biggest organic food fair in the world trying to win the opportunities to shine in the market.
"We export nearly 80 million yuan worth of organic products to China every year since we got our certificate in 2013," Ejvind Pedersen, chief adviser of Danish Agriculture & Food Council, said, adding that organic milk and baby formula are the most popular products in China.All imported organic products have to be certificated in China after audit and onsite inspection by certification committee before they can get on the shelves in China.
According to Ejvind, the import volume of organic food from China is around the same while soybeans and oil are on top of the hot demands.
Henk E Bijl, Managing director of Vechtenaer B.V., expressed that it's a pity that it's impossible to bring fresh milk to China due to the products' short shelf life. "After we put the fresh milk in UST cartons, it will be in the warehouse of our Chinese distributor in two months and has another 10 months of shelf life."
Henk believes that the company's product has a strong edge in competing with other brands because he believes that the business he's in is all about trust. "We are in the pyramid of trust in Europe. When customers trust your products, they stick to it."
Like many who are impressed with how fast China's organic food market is growing, Henk is confident to see this market booming in no time. "What we have achieved in dairy industry in 30 years, China would probably do in five years."
Domestic companies are taking the initiatives to tap into the country's thirst for healthy dieting. Hona Organic, a company sells organic condiments, believes that enjoying the original taste of food is what eating healthy is all about. Setting out a kitchen on the fair, Hona attracts visitors to its booth by showing how healthy meals are cooked using very little condiments.
"Eating organic is not just a life style, it's also a choice to protect the environment and to respect the nature," Kang Yanli, the marketing manager of Hona Organic said, believing that it's a meaningful career she's in. "By not using chemical fertilizer, we are protecting not only ourselves but also farmers and animals in ecosystem," adding that it's important for domestic organic companies to pass on this knowledge to customers.
A series of high-profile food scandals over the past seven years has been a primary catalyst for growth in the organic food market. Ni Hongxing, director of China Agricuture Trade Promotion Center of MOA, said that China still faces a food safety crisis, adding that 96.22 percent of domestic consumers worry about this issue according to a poll.
"Building trust by securing the quality of the food is the key", Ni said.
The Communist Party of China Central Committee's No 1 Central Document for 2015, which outlines policy priorities for the year, emphasizes food security, sustainable agriculture and the environment. It also points out the balanced emphasis on quality and quantity is an important part of rural l agriculture reform.
Pursuing high output at the cost of resource depletion is now an recognized problematic path that's need to be ended.
The market share of organic food in China's food sector accounts 0.3 percent while that's of 8 percent in Denmark. "Countries that have developed organic agriculture early are under very little pressure of food quantity because they have more farmland and small population," Wang Huafei, director of China Organic Food Certification Center, said. "China has a big population and the demand of food pushed the overuse of fertilizers in farmland that's developed in high density. Our farmland works overload and pests and diseases have a higher possibility to frequent the crops."
"On top of that, China still has a long way to go in researching and inventing the effective biological pesticide with lower costs. It takes long time to teach farmers the new technologies with biological pesticide too," Wang said, pointing out that we have to develop organic agriculture sustainably, one step at a time without forcing it.
According to statistics, China has 731 certificated domestic organic food companies with an annual output of 13.48 billion. An industry report says that organic food sector is expected to grow to 1 to 1.5 percent in China from 2014 to 2018.
