[Editorial] Don't Surrender Organic Food Market

China is quickly fostering the growth of its organic agriculture industry, hoping to export organic products. The day cheap Chinese organic agricultural products are imported into Korean in large quantities is not far off. It's good for consumers that they will be able to enjoy quality farm products at cheap prices, but such imports will deal a big blow to the Korean farmers who have been seeking ways to use organic agriculture to stand up to the opening of the market to farm products. A composed response needs to be formulated, one that is widely advantageous for all.

With among other things a rapid increase in gimchi imports, Chinese food products have made their way deep into Korean life. It would be difficult to beat those Chinese products based on price. There is still a lot of distrust of food products from China, but you can't be forever optimistic and assume that will always be the case. China will have better quality management. While organic products are still being imported in small amounts on a grow-by-contract basis with Korean conglomerates, but the amount of food imported will gradually increase.

Depending on the effort that is spent on it, there is plenty of room for competition against foreign products in the market for high-quality foodstuff, because confidence is far more important than price. Firm quality superiority will be the most important thing if Korean farmers are going to win over the competition. There needs to be a thorough inspection program that watches over quality in the distribution process in addition to the production stage, so as to increase confidence in domestic organic agricultural products.

In Korea the organic farm industry is still just barely getting started. It needs help in establishing deeper roots so that production costs can be reduced. One good way of doing that would be to support the use of quality Korean products in school meals. Last month the Supreme Court declared invalid a South Jeolla Province ordinance on school meals that sought to support Korean agricultural products, saying it was inconsistent with a World Trade Organisation agreement. However, there are other ways to go about it, such as by supporting "superior agricultural products." The market for high-quality agricultural products must not also be handed over to other countries.

The Hankyoreh, 4 October 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]