China is trying to set a unified organic food standard to improve the authentication of such products.

A press release from the organization committee for the China AG Trade Fair (ATF) noted that China now has many authentication organizations in this field, and the standards they adopt differ. Some use standards of the United States, while some use Japanese ones, and some European.

The ATF, sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, will open Wednesday, featuring an exhibition of green food and organic food products in the country.

Organic foods are agricultural products grown without use of genetic projects or chemical products, such as fertilizers and pesticides.

China is now lagging behind in the production of organic food, according to the release. By 2002, China had only some 50 varieties of organic agricultural products growing on 700,000 hectares of land.

But the export of organic food is ever increasing to US$25 million in 2001 from US$10 million in 1998.

In the world, the total land used for organic food production has reached 23 million hectares. The consumption of organic food is expected to reach US$100 billion in 2010, with the United States, European countries and Japan as the major organic food markets.

(Xinhua News Agency November 11, 2003)