Comments on BioFach Shanghai May 2009

BioFach Shanghai is the only international organic fair that brings foreign organic businesses to mainland China. This year’s exhibition attracted 10,375 trade visitors and 238 exhibitors attended the show

During the exhibition, a conference on international organic food markets and development was organized. This conference, and in particular the presentations given by foreign speakers, were well received. They included Development of Organic Market in the World by Mr. Andre Leu from IFOAM, Organic Market in Europe by Mr. Udo Censkowsky from Organic Services GmbH, Global Market for Organic & Natural Cosmestics by Mr. Gerald A Herrmann from Organic Service GmbH, and Market and Certification Requirements of Organic Textiles by Mr. Vincent Durent from Ecocert SA. Visitors welcomed these presentations, since organic textiles and cosmetics are practically new concepts in China. The only drawback of the conference was that there was no time for discussion and questions, so there was no opportunity to get more information or to establish contacts.
 

Since November 2007, Bioagricoop has been trying to enter China’s organic market, promoting European - mainly Italian - organic food, PDO and PGO products. In 2007 it attended Organic China Expo, Beijing, exhibiting organic products ranging from Italian cheese, both white and wholemeal pastas, risotto rice, jams, chocolate spread, pasta sauces to extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, wine and snacks. Normally it might take a year for products like these to reach the market in China. In this case, however, even though they are rarely available at the local market level, they are still not being supplied. Organicity.eu attended Organic China Expo at the last minute and that is the reason why it was not listed in the exhibition publication.
 

In the case of organicity.eu, differences in culture and cuisine play a crucial part, and choosing the right partner is therefore of vital importance. Not all organicity.eu products are suitable for the local market, unless expatriates are the sole target customers - people who are familiar with Italian food and cook regularly as well. China is a big grain producer in the world and rice is consumed across the whole country. Italian risotto rice is different from all kinds of Chinese rice but people prefer to use locally available rice rather than an expensive imported product. Parmesan cheese? Most Chinese would turn their heads away the moment they tasted it! So, high-end Italian restaurants and some expatriates would probably be the only customers.
 

Most locally available organic food products are primary products such as grains, seeds, nuts, vegetables, cooking oils, honey, and dried mushrooms etc. Processed organic products are limited to just a few items: juice, jam, soy sauce, miso and Chinese style candy. And in each case there are only a couple of products available. Often non-organic ingredients are added, for example conventional sugar, and some even include preservatives. Soy sauce is either fermented for half a year or a maximum of a whole year, and in the case of miso it is six months. The only organic sugar made in China is granulated sugar, but it has a bleached white colour. This is the state of processed organic food products in mainland China at the moment, and in consequence many of these products are imported from Taiwan,  which has in some cases imported them from other countries and then exported to the mainland. What does all this mean? There is huge potential waiting to be exploited in the development of China’s organic food processing industry!