China to step up surveillance over food safety as new law looms

China will step up surveillance over the safety of farm products with the nation's first law on farm products safety expected to take effect on November 1, deputy agriculture minister Niu Dui said in Beijing Sunday.

"We must greatly strengthen the routine surveillance and spot check of farm products, publicize the results to the public timely and boost the safety awareness of farm products growers, processors and traders," he said at a promotion ceremony of the new law in Beijing's suburban Shunyi District.

Safety management is an important part of the agricultural modernization and is critical to boosting the international competitive edge of China's farm products, the deputy minister said.

Though there has been an improvement in the general situation of farm products safety, the reports of unsafe products were seen frequently in China.

The latest example is the hairy crabs exported to Taiwan. Taiwan health officials said they detected a carcinogen in a shipment of the crabs, though the crab farmers insist that the crabs are safe.

Niu said China has already set up a nationwide network of farm products quality inspection agencies, including 12 at national level, 311 at ministerial and 1,780 at provincial, municipal and country levels.

The government plans to take five years to make such a network more competent and efficient, he said.

Source: Xinhua put forward the idea of the Yiwu index in September last year during a tour of the city.

The Ministry of Commerce decided to use the "Yiwu-China Small Commodity Index" as its official name in June and entrusted China small commodity city, Zhejiang Gongshang University and Hangzhou-based Hundsun Electronics Co., Ltd. to jointly develop the program of the index, Su said.

Huang Hai, Minister Assistant of the Ministry of Commerce, said the index will provide a scientific statistics for government decision making and timely and accurate information for small commodity producers and dealers.

The Ministry of Commerce is hoping the "Yiwu index" will become a recognizable brand like the Dow-Jones Average, Huang said.

Yiwu has more than 1,400 accessories enterprises employing almost 90,000 people. Its major products are jewellery and ties.

The accessories output of the city accounts for 80 percent of the country's market share with an annual sales value of nine billion yuan (1.13 billion U.S. dollars).

It has trade exchanges with 200 countries and regions and about 30 billion U.S. dollars worth of goods orders each year.

The city has been designated China's first national-level shopping tourist destination by the National Tourism Administration.

The Yiwu market, with more than 50,000 stalls, received some 3.66 million visitors last year.

Source: Xinhua