"Organic" has been a hot topic in local agriculture in the past years. Are the vegetables or fields organic? Are the worm-infested vegetables you buy at home organic? Does organic mean safe?
Organic certification helps increase consumer confidence in our industry’s agricultural products. More than 30% of the organic vegetables we sell come from local certified organic farms, making it the largest source of organic vegetables after the mainland (43.3%).
At present, the "organic certification" carried out in Hong Kong is mainly carried out by the Hong Kong Organic Resource Center (HKORC). HKORC is a unit of Baptist University. Although its funding is funded by the Agriculture Fund of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and official support.
Products that declare themselves organic
All organic vegetables that have not been certified organic by a third party, including all locally produced organic vegetables; some organic vegetables imported from home or abroad without prepackaging; some were originally certified when imported, but were opened and sold in retail packaging in Hong Kong Organic products; some imported pre-packaged products from foreign countries may also fall into this category.
These products mainly indicate that they are organic on the packaging, price tags or other labels. This claim may be provided by producers, importers, wholesalers, retailers (such as supermarkets) or other institutions. But along with these claims, there is no logo from an independent organic certification agency.
The local organic vegetables distributed by the Vegetable Marketing Organisation (VMO) are all produced by local farmers under the Organic Farming Transformation Program and HKORC of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department. Although they use special labels to identify these products and have their own supervision system, the VMO still cannot be regarded as an independent third party because the Director of the Vegetable Management Office have staff to assist farmers participating in the scheme. Therefore, the organic vegetables currently sold through the VMO are still products that are self-declared to be organic.
The organic status or organic integrity of such products is not necessarily worse than certified products, but we have no way of knowing. These products are not certified, perhaps because the region does not yet have a certification system, such as Hong Kong; or the scale of the living is too small, and the cost of certification becomes proportionately expensive, making it not worth doing. If consumers want to know the quality of such products, it is best to inquire with store clerks, producers or other relevant persons, or even visit local organic farms when they have time to understand their operations, the concepts of the hosts, and the organisation’s background etc.
Yet, why don’t organic farmers apply for certification?
Even if it is an organic farm or an organic farmer’s market, ORC’s own random inspections will find the sale of suspected “groove vegetables” (that is, a mixture of vegetables from different farms, or organic and conventionally grown vegetables); non-certified but organically grown vegetables on our platform When selling fertilizers, organic pesticides, and small-scale producers who pay attention to the management of soil quality and the application of fertilizers and seeds, rather than making customers confident through third-party certification, the relationship between buyers and sellers is more about trusting "people" Focusing on itself, for example, through on-site inspections and regular updates on farming conditions, it makes consumers more confident. Compared with large, medium and small farms that have already applied for certification, they generally lack human resources, or consumers may not necessarily support them because they are “organic”, so farmers are naturally less motivated to apply for certification.
Among the organic farmers we know who have not applied for certification, some of the factors include old age, inability to handle the complicated documents required for certification, and academic qualifications that do not meet the paperwork required for certification. With the rise of regenerative agriculture in recent years, there has been a transition to a higher level (regenerative farming). The use of some fertilisers, enzymes and compost are not designated by HKORC, so it does not meet the requirements of organic certification, and the result is a transition to non-certified organic agriculture.
Organic certification does play a big role for some consumers and farms. However, certified organic vegetables and non-certified organic vegetables are inherently two different markets, serving different customers, and even have different prices.
What are truly organic foods?
Organic producers often sell their products through direct sales. These direct sales systems include Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), Consumers' Co-operative, Farmers' Market, etc. Within these systems, producers have varying degrees of direct contact with consumers, and some even allow consumers to participate in planning, production, pricing, distribution, transportation, promotion, and even management. Therefore, consumers have sufficient understanding of the producers' production methods and have greater confidence in the products.
But when the market expands, or the sales channels of products change, such as going through supermarkets or being shipped overseas for sale, the distance between consumers and producers becomes farther and farther. Consumers have no idea who produces and what methods they use. , the market will have a system that requires verification guarantees to build mutual trust between producers and consumers. This system can ensure that consumers can buy the products they want, and it can also protect genuine organic producers from being influenced by fake people. It can also establish the credibility and market of organic products and encourage more producers to join the ranks of organic production. .
Customer's choice
In fact, the most direct way to make the most appropriate choice is to increase our knowledge of organic products on the market - visiting local organic farms to understand how they operate is one of the effective ways; in addition, we can also learn more from suppliers and sellers (including us) Inquiries can, more or less, put some pressure on the market through the power of consumers, so that non-organic products have nowhere to hide and are less likely to be mixed into the organic market.
