Organic Animal Product Certification Regulation and Market Situation Analysis in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Wei-Yun Chen, 陳韋芸
• Other Authors: Wen-Chi Huang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/03133615352641074998

碩士 === 國立屏東科技大學 === 農企業管理系所 === 95 === Consumers started to pay more attention to organic agriculture and the demand for organic products has been increasing. According to the study conducted in United State Department of Agriculture points out that organic market in Taiwan has been growing 7～10% a year. Some agribusiness introduced the concept of organic production into animal industry in recent years. It is common to see the word “organic” on the packages of animal product in the market. In Taiwan, Organic Animal Production Standard has been issued and practiced since 2003, but National Animal Industry Foundation did not pass the accreditation by the Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan until September 2006, and it become the only organic animal product certification unit in domestic market ever since. Nonetheless, none of the farm passed the certification as of June 2007. In addition, the studies of organic animal industry were very few and the official statistical data has been lacking. Through observation in the stores, secondary materials from the newspaper clip data base system, and expert interviews, this study probed into the current situation of the domestic organic animal product in the market, and investigated the regulation for reference. There were few organic animal products available in the market, and the price was higher than the non-organic products. The organic animal products were imported, and the meat and dairy products were the major items. Some domestic egg farmers claimed to engage in organic animal production, but their products were not certified even though the products were labeled with the word “organic” in all packages. In addition, even though there were no certified organic animal products available yet, but products that were labeled as “natural,” “health,” “non-poisonous,” “no medicine residue,” “no antibiotic residue” or some other words on the packages were commonly seen. For instance, “the natural pig,” “the herbal pig”, and others got higher price tags than the rest of the animal products. Though the amount of organic animal product in Taiwan is limited at present, but the niches for organic animal products are still there. Taiwan is geographically isolated from the continent. The farming sector is composed of mostly small scale farms. The short transporting time of the products can guarantee the freshness and quality of the products. The original organic concept to eat locally is favorable for the locally produced organic animal products in Taiwan.