The Ministry of Agriculture Monday pledged to fully tap the potential of the agro-food processing sector in an effort to add to the fiscal coffers of the nation's farmers and improve food safety.

Conceding a weak agro-processing industry has inhibited China's rural economic growth, Vice-Minister Liu Jian said the country will prioritize development and introduce key processing expertise and equipment, and improve standardization and certification systems to guarantee the quality of processed foods.

China's farm produce processing industry is still in its infancy stage, experts said.

The country produces the world's largest amount of grain, oil crops, fruit, beans, meat, eggs and aquatic products. However, less than one-third of the total output is processed before reaching the marketplace, compared to the more than 70 percent processing rate in industrialized countries, according to Lu Liangshu, a senior agronomist in Beijing.

In developed nations, turnover from the agro-processing industry is usually three times as much as that from the agricultural sector. While in China, the ratio of output value of processing industry versus agricultural sector is 0.6 to 1, ministry statistics indicate.

The ministry estimates that if the agro-processing sector is expanded so that the ratio grows by 10 percent, the sector will be able to employ 2.3 million more farmers, with their income substantially improved over their farming work incomes, according to Liu.

Another field that China's agro-processing sector has yet to fully take advantage of is quality standardization to assure safer food products, Liu said.

That's why the ministry has decided to initiate an all-round plan to beef up the farm produce processing industry, he said.

The agro-processing sector will implement food quality standardization and certification systems in line with the country's actual conditions and international practices, Liu added.

Chen Jianguang, an official with the ministry's Bureau of Township Enterprises, said authorities are formulating guidelines for new standards, with improvements expected this year for 100 new areas in regard to the processing of wheat, corn and rice.

Internationally acknowledged standardization and certification regimes, such as ISO14000 and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point, will be promoted among China's processing businesses, Chen said.

Along with the Ministry of Science and Technology, agricultural authorities will support enterprises to import agro-food processing techniques while pursuing their own technological renovations, Liu said.

He said the ministry will offer support for the establishment of 500 pilot companies in the processing of farm produce.

They will be encouraged to sign contracts with farming households, who otherwise process little of their harvests and thus earn little from sales of their raw products in markets.

Output value of China's farm produce processing industry reached 3.1 trillion yuan (US$373 billion) last year. The sector employs at least 16.08 million people, statistics reveal.

(China Daily March 2, 2004)