Is the price of organic food high or not?

With the improvement of the living standards of urban and rural residents and the upgrading of consumption, the demand for high-quality agricultural products represented by organic food is growing rapidly. From January to November this year, China issued 1.54 billion organic codes. How can we ensure the sustained and vigorous development of organic agriculture, so that consumers can have a good taste and producers can grow quickly? The reporter made an on-the-spot visit to Jilin, a major agricultural province.

"Today, tomatoes are big and cheap, two yuan and a jin more." When I went out in the morning, I ran into Uncle Zhang, who came back from shopping in the morning market, carrying a big bag of tomatoes. On the same day, the reporter noticed in the organic vegetable shelf of a supermarket in Changchun, Jilin Province, that tomatoes cost 30 yuan per jin, carrots 49 yuan per jin, and green peppers 40 yuan per jin.

In recent years, the concept of "organic" has become popular. On the market, a dazzling array of goods, as long as affixed with the word "organic", is immediately expensive. People are willing to pay for better food, but they are inevitably a little nervous-will it be "Li Ghost" that they spend a lot of money to eat?

Why is organic food so expensive?

Low output per unit area and high production cost

Zhangjia Village, Shuangliao City, Jilin Province is surrounded by hills and used to be a remote and poor village. A few years ago, Yuan Changhong, deputy branch of the village, set his sights on organic agriculture, so he returned to his hometown to lead the villagers to transfer more than 700 hectares of land and set up a professional cooperative for double-grain cultivation for new middle farmers.

The cooperative's products passed the medium Green Huaxia Organic Product Certification last year and participated in the 17th China Green Food Expo as a brand representative of Jilin Province this year. The organic rice and miscellaneous grains in the village have been sold to the north, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and the income of the villagers has increased several times.

"the organic fertilizer for farming is made from bean cakes or seaweed and shellfish. The organic certification standard is very high, and there are strict requirements for soil, fertilizer, water and climate. " Yuan Changhong calculated that ordinary cultivation of 22000 jin of rice per hectare of real estate can only produce 14000 jin of organic land. "however, the price is good. Rice that used to cost 5 yuan per jin can now be sold for 15 to 38 yuan."

Dong Yingshan, vice president of the Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, also calculated that the output of organic agricultural products per unit acreage is only 50% of that of ordinary agricultural products, but labor costs will increase significantly.

Zhang Yan, a villager of Jiushaping Village, proved this to the reporter: "our land is manual weeding, usually from 5: 00 a.m. to 6: 00 p.m., with a daily wage of 150 yuan."

"the price is in line with the value." Qiu Yulin, director of the Green Food Office of Jilin Province, said that generally speaking, food is divided into four levels: general agricultural products, pollution-free agricultural products, green agricultural products, and organic agricultural products. "high cost, low yield" has pushed organic agricultural products to the top of the food pyramid.

In recent years, the food consumption structure of urban and rural residents in China has been accelerated to optimize and upgrade, and the demand for multi-level, diversified and high-quality agricultural products is growing rapidly. The demand of consumers has spread to the fields, and the production of organic agricultural products has gradually sprung up.

Liu Yong, a villager of Zhangjia Village, said that since he joined the cooperative and planted organic agricultural products, he felt particularly aggressive. The villagers have been driven up, and everyone feels that this is a sunny industry.

"Green and organic is a direction for agriculture to adjust its structure and increase efficiency, and it can effectively promote the supply-side reform of agricultural products." Han Fuchun, director of the Jilin Provincial Grain Bureau, said that the development of green and organic agricultural products has played a certain role in increasing farmers' income.

How to tell the true from the false "organic"?

Identify the certification logo and buy it from formal channels

In front of the supermarket shelves, Ms. Xu picked up a box of tomatoes and put them in the shopping cart. "there shouldn't be any fertilizers and pesticides for the children, but they are really too expensive."

Ms. Gu spent 10,000 yuan on a membership card, became a member of an organic farm, got a 35% discount on fruits and vegetables and enjoyed home delivery. But she said, "sometimes I wonder if what I've spent a lot of money on is really 'organic' food."

"not to mention ordinary consumers, it is difficult for experts to tell the true from the false. For consumers, the most reliable way to distinguish is to look at the organic certification logo. " Dong Yingshan said that it does not rule out that some businesses regard "organic" as a gimmick, intended for high prices.

According to Qiu Yulin, there are more than 20 certification bodies for organic food in China. Products certified by formal institutions have certification marks on them, which can be traced to the origin by scanning the QR code.

"there are still some merchants in the market who put organic labels on their products without certification for the sake of economic interests." Qiu Yulin said that the relevant departments will conduct irregular spot checks on organic products in large enterprises, agricultural wholesale and large supermarkets, but organic products sold by some informal institutions cannot be effectively regulated.

"at present, the organic food market does have the problem of attaching importance to certification and neglecting supervision." Han Fuchun said that only a standardized market for organic products can prevent fake and shoddy products and reassure consumers.

Qiu Yulin said, "consumers should choose formal channels to buy organic food." The next step is to set up organic food counters in supermarkets to ensure product quality. "

"Organic" means manure cultivation?

Production is not that simple, there is a strict process

Some businessmen think that those who do not use chemical fertilizers and pesticides are organic products, while others think that it is more "organic" to rent a piece of land and grow vegetables with traditional manure.

"it's not that easy to produce organic produce." Qiu Yulin denied the above view, "it has a very standardized and strict process." Organic food refers to the agricultural and sideline products and their processed products that come from the organic agricultural production system, are produced and processed in accordance with the requirements of organic agriculture and corresponding standards, and are certified by legal organic food certification bodies. "

At the national level, the pace of organic agriculture is also accelerating. In May 2016, the "opinions of the Ministry of Agriculture on promoting the sustained and healthy Development of" three products and one Standard "was issued, which made it clear that it would actively promote the construction of national organic agriculture demonstration bases.

This year, the Jilin Provincial Committee of the Chinese people's political Consultative Conference has a special discussion on speeding up the development of green organic agriculture. Zhang Yonglin, deputy director of the Provincial Agricultural Commission, said that Jilin will strengthen the guidance and demonstration of the production of green organic agricultural products from the source, and promote the large-scale operation of green organic agricultural products.