Mr. Jin Fazhong, Director of the Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs: Promoting high-quality development of agricultural products
On September 19-20th 2019, “3rd World Conference on Farm Animal Welfare” was held in Qingdao. The conference was jointly co-hosted by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and China Association for the Promotion of International Agricultural Cooperation (CAPIAC). The conference featured “Consumer-driven Quality Improvement: Assuring Animal and Human Health”.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs had always attached great importance to animal welfare. The Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Agriculture adhered to the concept of green development, fully supported the field of animal welfare, developed world-renowned national “Good • New • Special • Branded” products and facilitated the progress in quality control and improvement of animal products throughout China. During the meeting, Mr. Chen Jinfa, Deputy Director f the Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, issued the certificates for the first group of producers that received the national “Good • New • Special • Branded” certificates for their animal welfare-friendly products.
The quality and safety of agricultural products and nutritional quality are constant topics in consumption. Regarding to the historical position of China's agricultural product quality and safety, Jin Zhong believed that from the perspective of consumption, there were two sensitive topics. The first was the quality and safety of agricultural products, and the second was the nutritional quality, especially the “Good • New • Special • Branded” agricultural products. There were three major stages of development in the production and consumption of agricultural products: firstly, enough food for eating; secondly, safe food; thirdly, delicious and nutritious food. In the new era, high-quality development was the pursuit in agriculture. “Safety, quality, nutrition and health” was the pursuit in agricultural products. This was not only an an important aspect of the people’s longing for and needs for a better life, but also an important part of modern agriculture and rural revitalization and an important indicator of industry development and national health.
In order to promote the high-quality development of agriculture, China has put forward the decision to implement green development of agriculture, and has proposed to increase the supply of green and high-quality agricultural products. At the same time, it proposes that the quality and safety of agricultural products and the proportion of branded agricultural products will be significantly increased. By 2030, the supply of agricultural products will be more excellent and safe. This also marks a new stage in which China has started a more secure, higher-quality, greener development of agricultural products.
Jin Fazhong pointed out that the current level of quality and safety of China's agricultural products was generally stable. The monitoring pass rate was at a high level; the proportion of safe and high-quality branded agricultural products had increased significantly; there was nearly zero incidence in which the export of agricultural products had been blocked due to quality and safety reasons; the public's worry and fear about the safety of agricultural products had been basically eliminated. The overall goal of agricultural product quality and safety in the next period was to comprehensively improve the quality control of agricultural products, standardized production capacity, green and good quality, risk prevention and control, traceability management and law enforcement supervision.
For the practical path of promoting high-quality development of agricultural products, Jin Fazhong believed that it included four levels:
First, there were two obvious goals in terms of agricultural products for producers, consumers and government departments: products were better and problems were less.
Second, on the basis of ensuring the quality and safety of agricultural products, it was necessary to establish the whole-process control and high-quality & characteristic development of agricultural production and consumption as soon as possible, and the promotion of “Good • New • Special • Branded” agricultural products was the top priority.
The third was to give full play to the leading role of labeling for the high-quality development of agricultural products.
The fourth was to engage on the high-quality development of agricultural products, including product security, whole-process control, packaging & labeling and good connection of production & selling.
