Featured agricultural products make four seasons of Pingdu, a city in
Shandong, more colorful and vital. Spring is famous for Yunshan large cherries, summer is well-known for Mingcun watermelons, autumn is renowned for Dazeshan grapes and winter is noted for Majiagou celeries. In recent years, based on national geographical indication (NGI) products protection system, Pingdu City makes full use of characteristic resource advantages and develops high-end agriculture.
Pingdu Municipal Quality Supervision Bureau strictly carries out the policy of NGI products protection, taking NGI products protection as an important method of promoting economic development. It aims to develop high-end agriculture with local characteristics and has achieved remarkable effects. After Majiagou celeries and Dazeshan grapes were declared as NGI products, in April, 2010, Pingdu large peanuts and Pantao big gingers also passed the NGI product assessment in Beijing. In May, 2010, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People’s Republic of China (AQSIQ) approved to protect these two products under NGI system. Until now, Pingdu has four kinds of NGI products, ranking the first nationwide at city level.
Pingdu government and the supervision bureau have provided services to promote NGI products protection with joint efforts. Pingdu government paid great attention to organizing, making plans, funding and sharing information. It emphasized to develop high quality industries and protect famous brands. Pingdu Municipal Party Secretary Wang Zhong attached great importance to NGI products protection, as it was meaningful and positive to local economic development. Wang pointed out that based on the success achieved, it was important to focus on new NGI products application. It needed further enhancement on developing high-end agriculture, constituting modern agricultural system and promoting agricultural development method.
Under the leadership of municipal government, Pingdu Municipal Quality Supervision Bureau fulfills its responsibility and executes its function. It has enhanced the construction of NGI product technical standard system, organized experts to help Pingdu make the local standard of their featured products, guided enterprises and farmers to achieve standardization of cultivation, and adopted standard production procedure and quality supervision during the whole production process. Meanwhile, the supervision bureau supports superior enterprises and farmers, cracks down upon inferior counterparts, combines GI products protection with intellectual property protection and fights against counterfeits to maintain the quality and credibility of GI products.
By brand cultivation, the bureau promotes featured high quality agricultural products to refined development to achieve large agricultural scale and standardization. For example, in the production process of Majiagou celeries, farmers should strictly carry out two main points: to use organic fertilizers and to use physical method to kill pests. Farmers also have to avoid two points: to use chemical raw materials and to use pesticides. By this high-end planting model, the average sale price of Majiagou celeries increases from 1.2 Yuan/Kilogram to 4.8 Yuan/Kilogram in less than two years. The price of the central part of the celery can reach 400 Yuan/Kilogram. This promotes local economic development and increases income of farmers. Meanwhile, the authority has also developed varieties of festivals with cultural history and tourism with local characteristic natural scenes, which not only extend NGI product industrial chain, but also make a perfect propaganda of local featured industry and culture.
Last April, drafted by Pingdu Municipal Quality Supervision Bureau, Pingdu municipal government constituted and launched Pingdu’s first GI products protection document, ”Pingdu Geographical Indication Product Protection Approaches”. The implementation of the approaches have effectively protected GI products, standardized the application, use and management for GI product special marks, maintained the order in the production and sales of GI products, ensured the quality and feature of GI products and lead the protection work to the legal system.
Source:IPR in China
