Organic Food Industry in China - Current State and Future Prospects - (PDF)

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2004 in the subject Orientalism / Sinology - Chinese / China, grade: 1,0, Free University of Berlin (Ostasiatisches Seminar), language: English, abstract: Chinese economic growth rates may send many people into raptures, but the agricultural sector is usually excluded from this enthusiasm. Being the problem child among Chinas economic sectors, agriculture is characterized by its low productivity and sluggish development, negatively affecting the national development, and in particular, a rural upturn. Under these conditions, the emergence of environmentally friendly farming - including organic agriculture - gives rise to great hopes, since these approaches are expected to have positive influences on economic, social and ecological fields.

Organic farming continues to show a rapid development world-wide. On the Asian continent the total area of organic production still is relatively small, but the interest in organic is steadily increasing. According to a SÖL-survey, among the countries in Asia " [...] China heralds perhaps the highest growth potential [for organic farming] in the near future." The Chinese organic development is only a few years old, but more than one third of Asia's total area under organic management is already situated in China. Tremendous growth rates have been evolving in all fields of the Chinese organic industry and market.

In 1990, the Dutch organic certification body SKAL inspected and later certified a Chinese tea plantation, which became the first organic farm in China. Four years later, the earliest Chinese organic certification body, OFDC, was established. By 1995, altogether almost 45,000 ha of land were reported to be certified as organically cultivated in China. If the SÖL is right with its estimation, the certified organic production area increased to more than 100,000 ha in 2001, plus about 200,000 ha that are cultivated according to organic standards, but still have not received an organic certificate. Nevertheless, this is only 0,06 % of the total agricultural land in China.