'Organic' Foods From China, With Pesticides

[kurth]

JULY 30, 2007
SPECIAL REPORT
By Chi-Chu Tschang
Organic, With Pesticides
Some farmers in China are taking advantage of confusing rules to falsely label food

The word "wholesome" doesn't exactly spring to mind when describing Chinese exports these days. But for years now, Chinese farmers have fed soaring global demand for organic foods. China now ranks third worldwide in organic farmland, after Australia and Argentina, up from 45th in 2000. Organic soybeans, rice, and other grains, along with frozen vegetables and fruit concentrate from China are all making their way into processed organic foods that wind up on store shelves in the U.S., food brokers say. U.S. government agencies don't collect data on the value or country of origin of organic food imports.

In light of the recent toothpaste and medicine scandals, Americans might rightly wonder what passes for organic in China. While falsely labeled organic foods are a problem all over the world, in China the situation is murkier than just about anywhere. Within China's organic food industry, fraud is a widespread problem, say organic farm owners. "China's organic food market is chaotic," acknowledges Liu Lei, secretary general of the Association of Green Development, a trade group representing organic farmers in the southern province of Yunnan. "You have a lot of small companies taking produce grown with pesticides and chemical fertilizers, then advertising it and selling it as organic."

Even some global heavyweights have been duped. Wal-Mart began several years ago procuring organic produce from a large-scale "organic" farm near Beijing to sell in Supercenter branches around China. Last year, Wal-Mart had to pull the produce from its Chinese stores after a surprise inspection revealed that the supplier was selling vegetables treated with pesticides. "It wasn't just Wal-Mart. The organic farm had to recall their produce from all the supermarkets they supplied," said Yunnan-based He Fan, Wal-Mart Kunming fresh produce procurement manager...

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_31/b4044062.htm