the world of organic agriculture - Organic Eprints

13 Organic Farming in Asia
13.6 Development Challenges
All reports received lodged a positive overall outlook. The critical challenge for Asian organic
agriculture as mentioned in the review of the 2005 edition of this book is how to sustain
expansion. The question remains.
More public and private organizations, including policy makers, are undoubtedly interested.
Expectations, benchmarking growth rates of developed markets, are high. Infrastructure and
competencies to support organic conversion in developing countries, in the region, are however
lacking. Many, influenced by export market requirements, believe regulation is important for
development. Greater attention is still directed to standards, regulations and certification
development and not to organizing the production and proper handling of market supply chains
to meet with increasingly demanding food quality and standards requirements.
Downstream processing of organic products remains weak. Whilst new organic projects are
coming up, the Sri Lanka report noted that most are contract growing projects with final product
processing taking place elsewhere. A condition that reflects limited participation of local food
processing industry, also volume of domestic markets whilst growing have yet to be interesting
enough for local food processors to take the challenge.
Government announcements of wider support for local and export development in many
countries are encouraging. Government involvement is growing. How the organic sector will
further develop and whether development will be smooth or twist and turn will depend on the
intervention of national governments in the region.
Well intended, but ad hoc and unevenly implemented support in the case of the Chinese local
governments will precipitate criticism. Improvement of institutional services in general, as
implemented by the Hong Kong authorities, will be well received. What is lacking from all reports
is investment in research in production and marketing. Reliable production and market data is
generally not available in the region. Data collection of production and market statistics for this
publication over the years remain a challenge. Hong Kong is exemplary in having conducted four
surveys in 2005.
With competition sliming export margins, a critical issue to monitor from local enthusiasm in
setting regulations is the cost of regulatory compliance. Such costs/fees will hurt producers as
well make organic products ever more expensive than conventional products. Governments do
need to consider the full implication to market development when setting organic regulations,
particularly with respect to facilitating exports and recognition of imports. Whether the Chinese
newly found stringent rules will support or retard growth remains to be seen. Going slow
with regulations would be advisable as the regulatory framework is fluid. Revisions of the EU
regulation, the NOP and IFOAM system are expected in the coming years.
The appropriate role of government needs further discussion. Public-private partnership where
government intervention strengthens private sector competencies to grow the organic sector is
needed. On the private sector level, building consensus and national organic trade associations is
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