China: Consumers develop taste for organic foods

Wang Xinqiu is prepared to pay 10 times more for organic vegetables than for regular produce in Beijing. It buys her peace of mind.

"Organic food seems safer," says the Chinese medicine practitioner, after selecting organic cabbage and ginger at a Carrefour supermarket as her daughter, eight-year-old Maria, tags along. "A big reason I buy organic is I'm concerned that my child could eat something contaminated."

Chinese are developing a taste for organically grown food as pesticides, pollution and fakes— including lard made from sewage and grease—infiltrate the food chain.

More than 60 percent of the country's 562 million city dwellers are willing to pay more for produce certified safe or organic, according to research commissioned by the Ministry of Commerce.

Wal-Mart Stores and Carrefour are among those taking advantage of the trend. Sales of organic vegetables at one Wal-Mart store in Beijing soared 88 percent in the 12 months through November, the company reports.

"Chinese consumers really are serious about safe and organic foods, and they're willing to pay for them," explains Elizabeth Harrington, chief executive officer of E Harrington Global, a Chicago firm that contributed to the Commerce Ministry research.

"Part of it is the negative publicity that has come out in recent years about everything from fake foods to contaminated baby foods to pesticides in apples."

The Health Ministry declared 144 instances of food poisoning involving 4,922 people in October through December, a 42-percent increase in those affected from a year earlier.

In the past three months, state media reported a government crackdown on meat processed from sick or dead animals, a ban on duck eggs found to contain a cancer-causing dye and the arrest of a factory manager for allegedly making lard from sewage and recycled industrial oil.

As wages and food production rise, "the issue has shifted from total supply to the quality of supply," says Huang Jikun, director of the Center for Agricultural Policy at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. "People are concerned. There's more information available and we know what we are eating."

Food-related diseases cost China, the world's most populous nation, as much as $14 billion a year in medical treatment and lost productivity, the Asian Development Bank estimates.

Pesticide poisoning already affects half a million Chinese a year, causing more than 500 fatalities, according to government research. The World Bank blames air pollution for more than 400,000 premature deaths annually.

Song Guangxiong, a professor at North China Electricity University in Beijing, says he learned about the dangers of pesticides from a friend who runs an organic farm near the city. He now buys only organic vegetables.

"There's going to be a bill for the choices we make," explains Song, 33. "It's pretty expensive, but I think it's worth the money."