Soil Association Certification and China’s organic certification body have entered into a unique partnership that makes it cheaper and simpler for the UK’s organic businesses to export to China.
Demand for organic products in China is growing rapidly, with the market estimated to be worth USD 7.8 billion by 2015, indicating that China’s consumers are increasingly looking for food and products they can trust.
The partnership with Organic Food Development Centre (OFDC) will allow Chinese organic consumers to access more high quality UK organic produce, as well as enabling UK Soil Association-certified organic businesses, which saw strong growth of six per cent in 2013, to export to this major market.
Xingji Xiao, director of OFDC in Beijing, said: “We think the partnership is good and very important for our collaboration and can help us promote our mutual organic programme.”
Emma Yeats, senior certification officer at Soil Association Certification, said: “This new partnership comes at a time where there is positive growth in both the UK and Chinese organic markets and exports of UK organic produce to China can really flourish.
'Working with OFDC will make the process of certification for our UK licensees wanting to export to China both efficient and cost effective. We are delighted with this partnership which helps develop an important export opportunity.”
The new partnership is part of the Soil Association Certification’s Export Support Programme, through which experts are working with international governments, trade associations, export agencies and certification bodies in different markets, to open up new business opportunities for Soil Association-certified organic businesses.
The formation of this latest partnership was supported by the Regional City Engagement team at the British Embassy in Beijing, and Defra.
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