Quality And Safety Of Agricultural Products In 2009

The number of product categories monitored increased from 4 to 10, the monitoring parameter increased from 30 to 68, and the monitoring scope increased from 36 municipalities, cities specially designated in the state plan, and capital cities to 259 large and medium cities nationwide.

In 2009, 79 ministerial quality inspection agencies conducted three rounds of routine monitoring, with 31,991 samples and 630,000 data. According to the monitoring results, the acceptance rates of vegetables, livestock and poultry products and aquatic products were 96.4 per cent, 99.5 per cent, and 97.2 per cent respectively, up by 0.1, 0.8, and 1.5 percentage points respectively year-on-year. The acceptance rates of the increase-monitored fruit, edible fungus, and tea were 98 per cent, 95.2 per cent, and 94.8 per cent respectively. The monitoring results of 2009 showed that with the scaled up management of quality and safety of agricultural products, China witnessed steady progress in quality and safety of agricultural products.

The Ministry of Agriculture has released the monitoring results, instructing local authorities to deal with outstanding problems, enhance law enforcement and execute penalties for unqualified agricultural products and their enterprises, push forward standardised agricultural production, scale up production and technical guidance and services in raising and cropping processes, and improve effective supply of safe and quality agricultural products.

Meanwhile, MOA has identified specific activities for quality and safety of agricultural products in 2010, clarifying priorities and goals. Agricultural products and agricultural inputs with high safety risks and hidden hazards should be further managed. Pesticides and veterinary drugs which are prohibited should be further controlled. We should also roll out standardised production of horticultural products, livestock products and aquatic products, so as not to have major incidents of quality and safety of agricultural products.