I. Enhance Safety Management
1. Promotion of GAP certified safe fruits and vegetables:
There were 2,127 GAP listed agricultural production and sales groups at the end of 2014. Those farmer production and sales groups cover a total of 25,719 hectares. With a plan of production traceability system, GAP opened applications on July 2014, for admission in order to enhance safety management for self-monitored production processes, and thus, it was able to distinguish their products from those overseas agricultural products.
2. Promotion of organic agriculture:
There were 6,071 hectares of certified organic agricultural production field at the end of 2014, held by 3,038 farm households. Among these organic productions, 642 hectares of organic lands were farmed by public-owned organic business groups, while 357 hectares were farmed by private-owned business groups. The organic products are sold via 103 organic-specific outlets, 18 organic-specific farmers’ markets, 12 organic local village sales venues, or 165 e-commerce listed organic farms. The production and sales of organic products can help to develop specialties in organic agricultural products and processing foods.
3. Promotion of CAS certified excellent agricultural products:
There were 744 agricultural products with 5,946 items certified by CAS at the end of 2014, which covers 290 agribusinesses in meat, milk, and aquatic product productions in a total of 16 categories.
4. Promotion of traceability production and sales system:
There were 201 items of products supplied by 1,420 certified companies with traceability records at the end of 2014. The intensive promotion of traceability system is important to match production and sales, educational extension, and counseling services to hyper- and super-market retailers with 361 kiosks. Restaurants were also encouraged to use traceable labeled food. An average number of 3.58 million of traceability labels have been distributed monthly at the end of 2014, with a growth rate of 106% compared with 1.74 million monthly distributions of labels in 2013.
5. Rigor test of medication residues in agricultural uses:
Council of Agriculture (COA) regularly publishes testing results at their website regarding the “information of agricultural production inspections”. There were 95.9% of randomly selected 7,267 fruits and vegetables that passed the test in 2014. The passing rate of rice was 96.6% among 1,848 selected samples, and 97.1% passing rate for 2,123 selected tea samples. To those items which failed to pass the test, they were fined according to the regulation and monitored by the related authorities for further improvement.
II. Distinguishing domestic and import tracks of agricultural products
1. Management and extensions of rice products:
The amendment of Food Management Act (The Act, hereafter) was effective on December 18, 2014. According to the 14-1-2 Clause of The Act, the sales of the rice products cannot pack domestic rice mixed with imported rice. In addition, the food traceability mechanism has been established in order to regulate an independent recording system for rice agribusinesses regarding their buying and sales information of domestic and imported foods. For those scaled trading and processing agribusinesses listed by the related authorities, the traceability records of suppliers and buyers were requested.
2. Promotion of the “Taiwan Rice” label:
In 2014, there were 10 restaurants with 3,660 chain stores which participated in the promotion of “Taiwan Rice” labeling, including Taiwan Railway Company, Mos Burger, Wu-Tau, and Yoshinoya. Moreover, there were 24 companies with more than 50 items of rice products, such as rice bread, rice ice cream, rice layered cake, and rice dorayaki, were assisted via extension and training classes of rice food applications and products during 2014. Those products were sold over 3,000 outlets, which were conveniently accessed by consumers for an innovative usage of domestic rice outputs. It was estimated that an increase of 1,205 MT of rice usage for those innovative rice products was reported during 2014. That was equal to six times of growth compared with the usage in 2013.
3. Independent management of domestic and overseas livestock processing products:
According to Consumer Protection Law, the fresh sales of chicken meat and pork meat via the retailers should be clearly defined and labeled as “unfrozen meat” or “refrigerating meat” since March (chicken) or May (pork) in 2014, in order to protect consumers’ rights. The purpose is to distinguish the domestic produced meat with overseas import meat in order to avoid any mixture and confusion among products and prices. For examples, the price differentiation can achieve as much as 50% differences between domestically and overseas produced chicken leg meat. Moreover, it also helps to maintain price stability of white chicken meat.
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Date submitted: May 22, 2015
Reviewed, edited and uploaded: May 22, 2015
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Safety Management of Agricultural Products in Taiwan
I. Enhance Safety Management
1. Promotion of GAP certified safe fruits and vegetables:
There were 2,127 GAP listed agricultural production and sales groups at the end of 2014. Those farmer production and sales groups cover a total of 25,719 hectares. With a plan of production traceability system, GAP opened applications on July 2014, for admission in order to enhance safety management for self-monitored production processes, and thus, it was able to distinguish their products from those overseas agricultural products.
2. Promotion of organic agriculture:
There were 6,071 hectares of certified organic agricultural production field at the end of 2014, held by 3,038 farm households. Among these organic productions, 642 hectares of organic lands were farmed by public-owned organic business groups, while 357 hectares were farmed by private-owned business groups. The organic products are sold via 103 organic-specific outlets, 18 organic-specific farmers’ markets, 12 organic local village sales venues, or 165 e-commerce listed organic farms. The production and sales of organic products can help to develop specialties in organic agricultural products and processing foods.
3. Promotion of CAS certified excellent agricultural products:
There were 744 agricultural products with 5,946 items certified by CAS at the end of 2014, which covers 290 agribusinesses in meat, milk, and aquatic product productions in a total of 16 categories.
4. Promotion of traceability production and sales system:
There were 201 items of products supplied by 1,420 certified companies with traceability records at the end of 2014. The intensive promotion of traceability system is important to match production and sales, educational extension, and counseling services to hyper- and super-market retailers with 361 kiosks. Restaurants were also encouraged to use traceable labeled food. An average number of 3.58 million of traceability labels have been distributed monthly at the end of 2014, with a growth rate of 106% compared with 1.74 million monthly distributions of labels in 2013.
5. Rigor test of medication residues in agricultural uses:
Council of Agriculture (COA) regularly publishes testing results at their website regarding the “information of agricultural production inspections”. There were 95.9% of randomly selected 7,267 fruits and vegetables that passed the test in 2014. The passing rate of rice was 96.6% among 1,848 selected samples, and 97.1% passing rate for 2,123 selected tea samples. To those items which failed to pass the test, they were fined according to the regulation and monitored by the related authorities for further improvement.
II. Distinguishing domestic and import tracks of agricultural products
1. Management and extensions of rice products:
The amendment of Food Management Act (The Act, hereafter) was effective on December 18, 2014. According to the 14-1-2 Clause of The Act, the sales of the rice products cannot pack domestic rice mixed with imported rice. In addition, the food traceability mechanism has been established in order to regulate an independent recording system for rice agribusinesses regarding their buying and sales information of domestic and imported foods. For those scaled trading and processing agribusinesses listed by the related authorities, the traceability records of suppliers and buyers were requested.
2. Promotion of the “Taiwan Rice” label:
In 2014, there were 10 restaurants with 3,660 chain stores which participated in the promotion of “Taiwan Rice” labeling, including Taiwan Railway Company, Mos Burger, Wu-Tau, and Yoshinoya. Moreover, there were 24 companies with more than 50 items of rice products, such as rice bread, rice ice cream, rice layered cake, and rice dorayaki, were assisted via extension and training classes of rice food applications and products during 2014. Those products were sold over 3,000 outlets, which were conveniently accessed by consumers for an innovative usage of domestic rice outputs. It was estimated that an increase of 1,205 MT of rice usage for those innovative rice products was reported during 2014. That was equal to six times of growth compared with the usage in 2013.
3. Independent management of domestic and overseas livestock processing products:
According to Consumer Protection Law, the fresh sales of chicken meat and pork meat via the retailers should be clearly defined and labeled as “unfrozen meat” or “refrigerating meat” since March (chicken) or May (pork) in 2014, in order to protect consumers’ rights. The purpose is to distinguish the domestic produced meat with overseas import meat in order to avoid any mixture and confusion among products and prices. For examples, the price differentiation can achieve as much as 50% differences between domestically and overseas produced chicken leg meat. Moreover, it also helps to maintain price stability of white chicken meat.
Date submitted: May 22, 2015
Reviewed, edited and uploaded: May 22, 2015