Why are organic foods so expensive, and are they worth the price?

As urban and rural residents across China enjoy a better life and consumption upgrades, demand for high-quality agricultural products, with organic foods as a representative, is growing rapidly. From January to November this year, China issued 1.54 billion organic codes. How can the vigorous development of organic agriculture be safeguarded, so that consumers can eat well and producers can farm with hope? Reporters conducted an on-site visit in Jilin, a major agricultural province.

"Today's tomatoes are big and cheap, just over two yuan a jin." Stepping out in the morning, I ran into Grandpa Zhang, who was returning from the morning market with groceries, carrying a big bag of tomatoes. That day, in a supermarket in Changchun, Jilin, the reporter noticed on the organic vegetable shelf that tomatoes cost 30 yuan a jin, carrots 49 yuan a jin, and green peppers 40 yuan a jin...

In recent years, the concept of "organic" has become popular. In the market, a dazzling array of goods instantly commands a high price as soon as the word "organic" is attached. People are willing to pay for eating better, but they can hardly help feeling uneasy -- could what they pay a high price for turn out to be a fake?

Why is organic food so expensive?

Lower yield per unit area, higher production costs

Zhangjiacun in Shuangliao City, Jilin Province, is surrounded on all sides by small hills and was once a remote poverty-stricken village. A few years ago, village deputy secretary Yuan Changhong broadened his horizons while working away from home and set his sights on organic agriculture, so he returned to his hometown and led the villagers in transferring more than 700 hectares of land, establishing the Xinzhongnong Shuangliang Planting Professional Cooperative.

The cooperative's products passed China Green Food Development Center organic product certification last year, and this year it represented Jilin Province's brands at the 17th China Green Food Expo. The village's organic rice and miscellaneous grains are sold to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and the villagers' incomes have increased several times over.

"The organic fertilizer used for farming is fermented from soybean cake or seaweed and shellfish. Organic certification standards are very high, with strict requirements for soil, fertilizer, water and climate." Yuan Changhong did the math: ordinary farming yields 22,000 jin of rice per hectare, while organic farming yields only 14,000 jin per hectare. "But the price is good too. Rice that used to sell for 5 yuan a jin can now sell for 15 to 38 yuan."

Dong Yingshan, vice president of the Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, also did the math: the yield of organic agricultural products per unit of planted area is only 50%-60% that of ordinary agricultural products, while labor costs increase substantially.

Zhang Yan, a villager from Jiushapingcun, proved this point to the reporter: "Our fields are all weeded by hand, usually from 5 in the morning to 6 in the evening, and the daily wage is 150 yuan."

"Price and value are consistent." Qiu Yulin, director of the Jilin Province Green Food Office, said that generally speaking food falls into 4 tiers: ordinary 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 across China has been optimizing and upgrading at a faster pace, and demand for multi-tiered, diversified, high-quality agricultural products has shown rapid growth. Consumer demand has reached the fields, and the production of organic agricultural products has gradually risen.

Liu Yong, a villager from Zhangjiacun, said that since joining the cooperative and growing organic agricultural products, he feels especially hopeful. The villagers have all been spurred into action, and everyone feels this is a sunrise industry.

"Green and organic is one direction for adjusting agriculture's structure and increasing efficiency, and can effectively advance supply-side reform in agricultural products." Han Fuchun, director of the Jilin Province Grain Bureau, said that developing green and organic agricultural products has played a certain role in promoting farmers' income growth.

How can real and fake "organic" be told apart?

Look for the certification mark and buy through proper channels

In front of the supermarket shelf, Ms. Xu picked up a box of tomatoes, looked at it, and put it in her shopping cart. "Bought for my child. It should have no chemical fertilizer or pesticides, but it really is too expensive."

Ms. Gu spent 10,000 yuan on a membership card, becoming a member of an organic farm, entitling her to a 35% discount on fruits and vegetables and home delivery service. But she said, "Sometimes I still wonder to myself -- having paid such a high price, is what I'm eating really 'organic' food?"

"Never mind ordinary consumers -- even experts find it hard to tell real from fake. For consumers, the most reliable way to tell is still to look at the organic certification mark." Dong Yingshan said it cannot be ruled out that some merchants treat "organic" as a gimmick, aiming at high prices.

Qiu Yulin explained that there are more than 20 certification bodies for organic food in China. Products certified by proper bodies all carry a certification mark, and by scanning the QR code, the place of origin can be traced.

"There are still some merchants on the market who, for economic gain, label their products as organic without certification." Qiu Yulin said that relevant departments conduct irregular spot checks on organic products in large enterprises, large agricultural wholesale markets and large supermarkets, but organic products sold by some non-standard institutions cannot be effectively regulated.

"At present, the organic food market indeed has a problem of emphasizing certification over supervision." Han Fuchun said that only a well-regulated organic product market can prevent counterfeit and shoddy products and set consumers' minds at ease.

Qiu Yulin said, "Consumers should choose proper channels when buying organic food. The next step is to set up dedicated organic food counters in supermarkets to ensure product quality."

Is "organic" just farming with manure?

Production is not that simple; there is a strict process

Some merchants believe that anything grown without chemical fertilizer or pesticides counts as an organic product; some citizens also believe that renting a plot of land and growing vegetables with traditional manure is more "organic."

"Producing organic agricultural products is not that simple." Qiu Yulin rejected the above view. "It has a very standardized and strict process. Organic food refers to agricultural by-products and processed products that come from an organic agricultural production system, are produced and processed according to organic agriculture requirements and corresponding standards, and are certified by a lawful organic food certification body."

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 Label'" were issued, clearly proposing to actively advance the construction of national organic agriculture demonstration bases.

The Jilin Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference held a special discussion this year on accelerating the development of green and organic agriculture. Zhang Yonglin, deputy director of the Provincial Agriculture Commission, said that Jilin will strengthen guidance and demonstration for green and organic agricultural product production from the source, and advance large-scale operation of green and organic agricultural products.