Beijing will vigorously develop contamination-free and organic food to feed a "Green Olympics," the capital's agricultural chief said Wednesday.  

The municipality's efforts to develop the agricultural sector will go beyond the 2008 event, focusing on producing top-quality farm produce to satisfy higher consumer demand, while allowing the city's rural suburbs to be used more for leisure pursuits by urbanites.

The message was delivered by Li Jinshan, director of the Beijing Municipal Agricultural Commission, at a meeting on the sidelines of the Second China Ag Trade Fair, scheduled to end tomorrow.

With increasing consumer concerned about food safety, and as the capital is preparing for a "Green Olympics," Beijing has a tremendous demand for green food, Li said.

"We'll go all out to develop safe, green and organic food."

In order to hold a "Green Olympics," Beijing will strive to build six green food production bases for meat, milk, vegetables, eggs, fruit and fungi, Li said.

To be specific, the capital will finish building a special production base in three years, covering 4,000 hectares, to supply 20 varieties of vegetables exclusively for the Olympics, the official said.

In addition, Beijing will launch 100 agricultural standardization pilot projects each year, to make sure all agricultural food products produced in Beijing's suburbs meet safety standards, he said.

With an area of 15,800 square kilometers, Beijing suburbs, consisting of 13 districts and counties, have been traditionally viewed as "a grain depot and a vegetable basket" for the capital.

Given the huge market potential and consumers' increasingly diversified demands for food, the Beijing municipal government has decided to develop "modern agriculture" in the suburbs, Li said.

More than 60 billion yuan (US$7.2 billion), or nearly 30 percent of total consumer spending in Beijing goes on food each year, Li quoted official statistics as saying.

To expand suburban food suppliers' share of the massive Beijing market, the local government has instigated a massive drive, the "211 Action Plan," to analyze new consumption trends, agricultural resources, scientific and financial support system, and to build a computer-based information network, according to Li.

As a result, Beijing farmers, whose number stood at 1.69 million last year, have been increasingly aware of the changes in consumer tastes, and have attached priority to the production of safe and green food products, he said.

Encouraged by Beijingers' desire for top-quality and safe products, Kwok Ho, president of the Chaoda Modern Agriculture Ltd in east China's Fujian Province, said his company will expand its green food production bases near Beijing.

With the ratio of green food increasing in the total food supply, the prices of such food will go down, said Gu Chonghua, another official with the agricultural commission.

Besides appealing to the tastebuds, Beijing's suburbs are also set to attract the eyes.

With their clean and beautiful environment, the suburbs are being encouraged to link agriculture with tourism, providing a rural living and farming experience for urban residents, Li said.

Last year alone, 39.827 million visits were made to the suburbs, bringing a revenue of 2.7 billion yuan (US$325 million) to the localities, indicated municipal government statistics.

(China Daily October 14, 2004)