National People's Congress Deputy Zhu Taiqing: Promoting mutual trust in the certification results of organic products 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 quality development on 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 on the Chinese mainland 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. On the mainland, organic products started relatively late. Although the region is vast, rich in natural resources, and diverse in product varieties, it has no technical advantage from cultivation to production; in Taiwan, the development of organic food 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 requires the mainland to provide raw materials. “There is complementarity in economic cooperation across the Strait. It is entirely possible to establish a cross-Strait certification and accreditation cooperation working group to jointly decide on specific implementation plans, clarify the scope of activities, and, as needed, form cooperation documents in relevant fields,” Zhu Taiqing said.
At present, the Chinese mainland 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 an organic certification mark issued by the government. If organic certified products are to be sold under the name “organic products” in the Chinese mainland in the future, they must obtain organic certification issued by the Chinese mainland. At present, Taiwanese organic food sold on the mainland is all recognized as ordinary food rather than organic food, while mainland organic products entering Taiwan must also undergo re-inspection and certification 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 of which organic products on both sides have lost their original market positioning and market advantages. Promoting mutual trust in the results of cross-Strait certification and accreditation (verification and certification) has therefore 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 on the mainland have already formulated very good preferential policies for attracting organic product technical talent, which have attracted 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, and many Taiwanese compatriots have chosen to settle there to grow organic products. “Such policies are worth promoting, and at the same time, knowledge exchanges and learning on cross-Strait organic products should also be strengthened,” Zhu Taiqing said.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11453/