Primary agricultural processed food will be managed by the Council of Agriculture to complete the special law on small-scale agricultural processing this year.

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"the processing of agricultural products really needs to keep up with the consumption trend, and only agricultural processing can prolong the appreciation period of fresh fruit." Lin Congxian, chairman of the Council of Agriculture, mentioned today (8) when reporting the results of his overseas visit, he once again felt the importance of agricultural processing during his visit to the "Tokyo International Food Fair 2018". "through agricultural processing, agricultural life can be extended and added value." Lin stressed that the development of cold chain, postharvest treatment and regional processing centers are the biggest focus of agricultural development this year.

However, in addition to the regional processing center focusing on postharvest processing, Chen Jizhong, vice chairman of the Council of Agriculture, also revealed in an interview a few days ago that the Council of Agriculture is currently working hard to promote a special law on small-scale agricultural processing, and intends to further consult with the Ministry of Health and Fuzhou in an attempt to put primary agricultural processed food under the management of the Council of Agriculture, so as to break through the bottleneck of the current home-grown agricultural products processing room.

Primary agricultural processing is proposed to belong to the Council of Agriculture, with four priority projects first.

At present, the Council of Agriculture tends to give priority to "drying,"crushing,"roasting," and "grinding." Chen Jizhong says that considering that the above four processed products are relatively simple, and food safety risks are easier to control, they are listed as priority promotion projects. Will other processed products be added in the future?. Chen said that a rolling review would be conducted depending on the promotion situation.

However, during an inter-ministerial meeting jointly convened by the Food and Security Office of the Executive Yuan in conjunction with the Council of Agriculture, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Xu Fu, director of the Food Safety Office, also mentioned that the object of application of the special law and the field must be clearly defined. agricultural land for agricultural products processing plants must be included in the discussion, and the conditions of sanitation and safety facilities for small agricultural products processing plants in the future special law must also be clearly stated.

In this regard, how does the Council of Agriculture tend to define the category of "small-scale agricultural processing"? Chen Jizhong said that the size of the area needs to be discussed, and the Council of Agriculture is also considering working out practices that are "directly related to" food safety for farmers to follow.

Dried red dates (courtesy of Chen Shuhui, a small-scale agricultural processor

In the future, the Department of Agricultural products Safety processing of the Ministry of Agriculture will shoulder the responsibility of management.

The Council of Agriculture intends to shoulder the responsibility for the management of agricultural products to agro-processed food, how will the actual management mechanism be established? Chen Jizhong said that at this stage, it can only be revealed that in the future, the "Agricultural products Safety processing Department" under the Ministry of Agriculture will play a key role, and the department will issue license numbers and bar codes. With this operation, small-scale agro-processed products can be sold on the channel in the future. Even if something happens, it can be recovered.

Chen Jizhong stressed that the custom practice for small-scale agricultural processing is not to relax food safety standards, but to be included in the management.

The output value of primary agricultural processing is incorporated into the calculation of agricultural output value to increase the overall agricultural output value.

In contrast to what Lin Congxian said today, "only agricultural processing can prolong the appreciation period of fresh fruit." Chen Jizhong also said that the annual output value of agriculture is about 500 billion yuan, but this is only the output value of primary agricultural production. From the farmers' point of view, the significance of agricultural processing is nothing more than adding value and prolonging the preservation period of agricultural products.

"but whose output value is calculated for agricultural products that have gone through primary processing?" Chen Jizhong pointed out: should it be incorporated into the output value of primary agricultural production or calculated on the basis of the output value of the secondary food processing industry? Chen believes that if the output value of primary agricultural processing can be incorporated into the calculation of agricultural output value, it will be able to increase the overall agricultural output value. Therefore, the Council of Agriculture has made great efforts to complete the special law on small-scale agricultural processing this year.

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