The Chinese Government set up its Green Food (GF) system in response to a sharp increase in food safety and quality problems in the 1980's,including a number of poisoning scandals. Since its establishment the GF movement has emerged as one of the world' most successful Eco-labelling programmes worth some US$ 12bn in 2004.
Some 2,047 GF enterprises, farming a total of 5.14m hectares are in existence now comprising a portfolio of over 4,000 products. While similar to organic programmes this system is not strictly organic.
It has two levels: Grade A, which bans the use of the most harmful chemicals in food production and Grade AA, introduced in the late 1990's,which has similarities to the international organic mechanism, but with the key motivation for launching the system being food safety, rather than the broader environmental issues. This it focusses more on final product standards than the actual process of production.
Some 100 enterprises are now graded as AA.
A weakness of the system though is the fact that the China National Green Food Development Centre, affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture not only owns the GF label but also is responsible for certifying its own product. This does not equate to the more stringent international organic principle of having third party monitoring.
That said as an indicator of best practice it still goes a long way to improving the standards of Food production in China.
Dragon Seal is a Green Food approved producer.
Dragon Seal
Wines. Evolution House, 46 Castle Street, Trowbridge, Wiltshire.BA14
8AY.
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