EU Tea Agricultural residue Standard rising Export blocked Tea Enterprises how to do as the Romans do

Since August 25, the agricultural residue standard of tea in the European Union has doubled sharply-- exports have been blocked, how tea enterprises do as the Romans do.

"the EU rule has had too much impact on me." As soon as he went to work on the morning of the 22nd, the reporter contacted Wang Xiaoming, president of Yixing Xiangzhen Tea Cooperative, who was busy discussing countermeasures with his colleagues. What bothers him is the EU's new EU87/2014 directive, which came into effect on August 25th.

The original standard control is not easy.

"the new directive mainly involves four pesticide residue indicators, including isoproturon, acetamiprid, pyrimidine and acetamiprid, which are all twice as high as the original standards, and the content has changed from 0.1ppm to 0.05ppm. In addition, the detection of azafenamide residues has been added to Chinese tea." Sun National Defense, deputy director of the Food Supervision and Administration Department of Jiangsu entry-exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, said that acetamiprid is a recommended drug in China's tea production, so the new regulations have a great impact on China's tea exports. Acetamiprid is not in the scope of pesticide residue detection in EU, but it is effective in controlling tea diseases and insect pests such as small green leafhopper, aphids, shell insects, Plutella xylostella, longitudinal leaf borer, longicorn beetles and so on. In addition, the use cost is low, and it is only two or three packages per mu of tea garden, which is widely used. " Wang Xiaoming said that it is already quite difficult to control pesticide residues at 0.1ppm. Now that the standard is doubled, we can only find new alternative pesticides. A pack of the same specification may cost more than ten yuan, and the effect is not necessarily good.

Yixing Xiangzhen Tea Cooperative is the main base of tea export in our province. 53 tea farms and thousands of tea farmers are located in Zhangzhu Mountain area, with a total area of nearly 20,000 mu and an annual export of more than 2 million US dollars. Unified management of products, unified provision of pesticides, cooperatives effectively control product quality, have obtained the qualification for export to the United States and the European Union, and the income of tea farmers has been guaranteed. Even the spring tea tail tea, which was originally used as fertilizer, has increased its income by more than 500 yuan per mu after it has been collected.

The European Union revises the agricultural residue limit every year

As the largest consumer market of green tea in China, since the implementation of the new agricultural residue limit standard for tea on July 1, 2000, the European Union has to revise it almost every year, thus becoming the region with the strictest requirements for agricultural residues of tea. "the number of tea testing indicators in the European Union has increased from 96 to more than 480, of which six must be tested, and the content cannot exceed 0.1ppm." Wang Xiaoming is worried that tea export will become more and more difficult in the future.

Pesticide residues are the weakness of tea export enterprises. Data show that China's tea exports to Europe this year have been notified by the European Union in 18 batches, agricultural residues exceeding the standard is the main reason. According to experts, pest control with pesticides is a common practice in agricultural production in almost all countries. Agricultural products that do not use chemical pesticides at all account for only 3% of the total. China exports tea mainly in summer and autumn, and there are many diseases and insect pests in hot weather, and pesticide residues are unavoidable. According to Sun National Defense, there are a total of 28 tests for agricultural residues in tea in China, much less than in developed countries. As for the tea production standard, it is only equivalent to the level of the European Union, South Korea and Japan in the 1970s and 1980s.

Although tea is not a protagonist in the export of agricultural products in our province and China, there were 26 batches and 227 tons of inspection and quarantine exports in the province last year, but its "export encounter" is representative. Under the current international trade environment, there are many names of green environmental protection, and the safety threshold is getting higher and higher. From the "positive list" of Japan to the new directive issued by the European Union, countries attach great importance to the safety of imported food. For tea export enterprises, the top priority is to find a way to deal with it.

The best way is to be in line with international standards.

Wang Xiaoming plans to open up other markets as soon as possible, such as Japan, where there is no limit on the content of acetamiprid in tea. Gu Weizhong, a worker at the tea and fruit station of Yixing Agriculture and Forestry Bureau, who has been dealing with tea for a long time, suggested that when organic production is difficult to become mainstream because of high costs, alternative varieties of pesticides can be chosen. Yin Fusheng, general manager of Jintan Xinpin Tea Co., Ltd., which is also engaged in export business, also holds a similar view: "every year, a large number of raw materials and intermediates in our country are exported, which are sold to us after being produced by foreign enterprises." If you want to export tea to any country, you will use pesticides from that country, so that there will be no restrictions. "

Some people in the industry believe that from a long-term point of view, the higher technical threshold of foreign countries can force China to further standardize tea production and help to enhance the awareness of environmental protection in tea planting and processing. On the other hand, the European Union and other developed countries frequently raise the agricultural residue standards of tea and other food and agricultural products, by contrast, it is exposed that the relevant testing standards in China are on the low side. On July 9, the consumers Association conducted a comparative test on 50 kinds of Longjing tea sold in the Beijing market. The results showed that all of them contained pesticide residues, but the indicators were all within the scope of the national standards. In addition, like the new residue detection of azafenamide in the European Union, the maximum residue of tea is not stipulated in the maximum residue limits of pesticides in Food Safety National Standard Food (GB2763-2014). In the face of a broader international market, the formulation of relevant domestic standards should also be in line with as soon as possible.