Zhu Taiqing, Deputy to the National People's Congress: Promote Mutual Trust in Organic Product Certification Results Across the Taiwan Strait

   As a deputy to the National People's Congress from the Taiwan delegation in the quality supervision system, in addition to caring about the quality development of the mainland, how to promote quality work exchanges across the Taiwan Strait has always been a question that Zhu Taiqing, deputy director of the Qinghai Provincial Quality and Technical Supervision Bureau, has been thinking about. This year his focus is on organic product certification across the Taiwan Strait.
In recent years, as consumers in mainland China have increasingly raised their requirements for health and environmental protection, demand for organic products has risen markedly, and the production and consumption of organic products have grown rapidly. In the mainland, organic products started relatively late. Although the region is vast, rich in natural resources, and diverse in varieties, it has no technical advantage from cultivation to production; in Taiwan, organic food development is highly competitive, with strong technical advantages in organic vegetables, organic food, and organic processed food, and a very high level of food processing, but the product range is limited and it needs the mainland to provide raw materials. “There is economic cooperation complementarity between the two sides, and a cross-strait certification and accreditation cooperation working group can absolutely be established to jointly decide on specific implementation plans, clarify the scope of activities, and so on, and to form cooperation documents in related fields as needed,” Zhu Taiqing said.
At present, mainland China has implemented a new organic product certification system since July 1, 2012. Organic products sold on the market may not be sold unless they have obtained the organic certification mark issued by the government. If organic certified products are to be sold in mainland China under the name “organic products” in the future, they must obtain organic certification issued by mainland China. Currently, Taiwanese organic food sold in the mainland is all recognized as ordinary food rather than organic food, and at the same time, mainland organic products entering Taiwan must also undergo inspection and certification again before they can enter the sales process. This means that organic food on both sides of the strait must be mutually certified before it can be recognized as organic food and sold on the other side. As a result, organic products on both sides of the strait have lost their original market positioning and market advantages, and promoting mutual trust in cross-strait certification and accreditation (verification and certification) results has become increasingly urgent.
In Zhu Taiqing's view, relying only on a small number of certification bodies can no longer meet the needs of cross-strait organic products. Under the framework of ECFA (Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement), mutual certification will help expand the cross-strait organic food market.
Through investigation, Zhu Taiqing found that some areas in the mainland have already formulated very good preferential policies for attracting organic product technical talent, attracting Taiwanese manufacturers. For example, Xichong County in Sichuan Province has generous conditions for attracting organic product technical talent, including a 70% reduction or exemption of land transfer fees and 100% government investment in agricultural infrastructure construction. Many Taiwanese compatriots choose to settle there to grow organic products. “Such policies are worth promoting, and at the same time, knowledge exchange and learning on cross-strait organic products should also be strengthened,” Zhu Taiqing said.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11453/