Identifying Organic Food Practices in the Agricultural Sector in China: A Consumer Perspective

This research aims to identify the organic food practices in the agricultural sector in China from the perspective of the consumers. It explores the trends and eating habits of organic food in China and examines the current practices in organic food production.

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Research Topic: Identifying organic food practices in the agricultural sector in china: a
consumer perspective
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Background
The term organic food is referred to the product of a farming system that is produced by
avoiding man made fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators and livestock regulator feed
additives. Additionally, Irradiation as well as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is also
prohibited when it comes too manufacturing of organic foods. Zhang et al. (2016) defined
organic agriculture as a systematic approach of working towards, environmentally, economically
as well as socially sustainable production. With the increasing rate of soil pollution and usage of
chemical fertilizers to enhance the production ad profit margin in the agricultural industry, the
quality of fruits and vegetables’ sold in the retail market is deteriorating in a rapid rate. When it
comes to china, 20 percent of the country’s farmland is hazardously polluted. China’s rapid
economic growth over the past 30 years has devastated its environment. Some of the major
agricultural scandals that took place in China within the last 5 years include high levels of heavy
metal cadmium in rice, exploding watermelons pumped with growth hormones, and the use of
the steroid clenbuterol to induce muscle growth of pigs have made food safety a priority for a
good number of the residents of China. According to a survey conducted in the year 20116, more
than 72 percent of the Chinese consumers are highly concerned about the food they are
consuming and suspects that the consumed food is harmful to their health (Zhu et al. 2018). As a
result of continuous blunders that took place over the decade, the demand of organic food
practices amongst the residents of China has increased to a considerable level. As per Si,

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Schumilas and Scott (2015), the organic market in china has evidenced a 30–fold growth over
the past 10 decades (Xie et al. 2015). A significant portion of the Chinese population has got
inclined towards Organic food practices over the last decade. According to researchers, the
milestone of the organic agriculture was set in the nation in the year 1990 when china exported a
certified organic product from Zhejiang Province and this had marked the launch of organic
production in the nation. According to a recent survey, China is currently the 3rd largest country
of organic for production in the world (Liu, Oosterveer and Spaargaren 2016).
Majority of the forms of sustainable agriculture in China was completely based on the
4000 years of traditional Chinese practices like crop rotation, compost recycling as well as
implementation of traditional ecological models. However, the implementation of fertilizers and
application of hybrid technologies took place during the green revolution in China (McCarthy,
Liu and Chen 2016). This revolution, though enhanced the production of agricultural and
farming to a great extent, had imposed highly negative impact on the quality of food and
biosecuirity risk associated with it. With the increased concern of the residents of the nation
about food security, traditional methods of cultivating organic food items are used along with
implementation of modern technology.
1.2 Problem Statement
While the organic food industry in china has booming in the country, the risk of usage of
harmful additives, veterinary drug residues, and mislabelling and other issues associated with
organic food production is existing in the nation. The chief reason behind this risk is the lack of
transparency associated with the organic food production process in China. More than 80
percent of the residents in the nation are upset about the current food safety situation. Consumers

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in China are willing to may even 10 times more for organic food non veg food items and five to
six times for veg food items (Thøgersen et al. 2015). However, with the scandals associated with
food item occurring one after another, the confidence of people in buying organic food in China
is deteriorating in a commendable level. For instance, the baby milk powder scandal of the Sanlu
Group in China which is new of the biggest dairy organizations in the nation had hurt the
confidence of the consumers of domestic dairy produces. When it comes to organic food items,
people are consuming organic food that lacks transparency and authentic levelling. It has been
found that the public awareness of organic standards is highly low even in financially advanced
cities like Beijing (Teng and Wang, 2015). Along with this, the effort from the side of the
government to educate people about the necessity to develop the awareness of specific
requirements for “organic certificate” is one of most prominent factors in creating the premium
for organic product, and such a lack of awareness would greatly hinder the growth of demand for
it (Ortega et al. 2016). Majority of the organic brands selling organic food items in premium
supermarket in Beijing possess no indication of organic practice apart from a specific certificate
logo on the packaging of their product (Bryła 2016). In case inorganic food items are getting sold
in the name of organic food items, the chief reason behind the demand for organic food items
will not get served. Eventually the demands for organic food items will get reduce hampering the
sales of the sale (James, Hu and Leonce 2019). Hence it is highly crucial to educate the
consumer about both the advantages of organic food and accessing authentic organic certificate
before purchasing the same.
1.3 Aims and objectives

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The chief aim of the researcher is to identify the organic food practices in the agricultural
sector in china from the perspective of the consumers. The objectives of the research are as
follows:
1. To find out the trend and organic food practices of the people in China.
2. To find out how the eating habits of organic food are related to the demographics and the
economic condition of the Chinese people.
3. To examine the current practices in organic food products in the agricultural sector of China.
1.4 Significance
Considering the fact that people of China lacks the awareness of specific requirements for
“organic certificate” while buying organic food, the purpose of this research is to identify the
psychology of the Chinese consumers behind consuming organic food items. The research aims
to find out the current food habits of consumers and its relation with the demographic as well as
the economic condition of the Chinese people (Vittersø and Tangeland 2015). The psychological
perspective of the Chinese people behind the consumption of organic food will help the research
to understand why people lack concern about the authenticity of the food they are consuming.
This, in turn will help the researcher to enhance the awareness of the residents of China about the
consumption of authentic organic food. While searching for relevant literature, it has been found
that while a good number of researchers have conducted research on the impact of organic
agriculture on the economy of China, highly limited number of researches has been conducted
when it comes to identification of the organic food practices in the agricultural sector in china
from the perspective of the consumers (Baudry et al., 2017). Hence a literature gap has been
located. This research has been conducted in order to help future researchers to conduct research

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on the topic. Along with this, this study will also help the government to assess the psychology
of the Chinese organ food consumers and develop effective strategies to enhance authentic
organic food consumption in the mentioned nation.
1.5 Structure of the study
This portion of the research paper is written to provide the users with a basic outline of
the content of research paper. The research paper has been segregated into 5 chapters namely,
introduction, literature review, methodology, results and analysis and finally conclusion. In the
introduction section, the background of the research topic has been discussed. This is followed
by the problem statement of the research. In this section, the researcher have discussed about the
specific issue that has led to the thought of conducting a research on the topic. In the next section
of Chapter 1, the aims and objectives of conducting the research has been discussed. This section
is followed by the significance section where the researcher have stated why the research will be
significant and the study will be beneficial for the audience as well s for future researchers.
In Chapter 2, review of academic literatures that are relevant to the research topic has
been conducted. The chief aim of conducting literature review is to collected secondary data for
the research. This section is comprised of the data obtained from previously done researches on
research topics that bears relevant with the current research. In this section of the research,
thematic literature review has been performed.
In Chapter 3, the methodology of the research has been discussed. In the methodology
section describes actions to be taken to investigate a research problem and the rationale for the
application of specific procedures or techniques used to identify, select, process, and analyse
information. The methodology chapter of this research paper is further segregated into nine parts,

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namely, introduction , research approach , research design , data collection process, sampling,
data analysis process , ethical consideration and summary. For collecting data for this research
both primary as well as secondary data collection method has been conducted. Mixed data
analysis in order to analyse the gathered information has been performed. Along with literature
review, survey to gather primary data has been conducted.
The fourth chapter is comprised of result and analysis. In this section, the findings of the
research after collection of both primary as well as secondary data have been discussed. Along
with this, analysis of the findings has been conducted in this section.
The last chapter of this research paper is the conclusion section. Here the researcher have
briefly summarises the content of the research paper. The summary section is followed by
implications an linking the same with the objectives of the research. Finally, evaluation as well
as future scope of the research has been discussed in the paper.
Chapter
1Introduction
Chapter
2Literature Review
Chapter
3Methodology
Chapter
4Analysis and findings
Chapter
5Conclusion

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Chapter 2: Literature review
2.1 Introduction
Literature review is a process of collecting secondary data from various secondary
resources and analyzing them under a systematic procedure. In this section the review of
academic literatures that are relevant to the research topic has been conducted. The chief aim of
conducting a literature review is to collect secondary data for the research. This section is
comprised of the data obtained from previously done researches on organic food in china that are
also relevant with the current research purpose. Literature review could be done in many formats
such as systematic literature review, narrative literature review, thematic literature review,
critical appraisal and meta-analysis. In this section of the research, thematic literature review has
been performed. The themes are chosen from the emerging topics and discussion found from the
reviewed literatures. The themes on which the literature review has been conducted include
Organic Food and its significance, Organic food production practice in China and Organic food
consumption practice in China. Along with conducting literature review, this chapter contains a
brief summary of the same along with the research gap observed while conducting it.
2.2 Organic Food and its significance
As stated by Barrena, García and Sánchez (2015), Organic food is produced by the
methods which comply with the standards of organic farming. While the standards are
worldwide, the organic farming chiefly features practices that include cycling of the resources,
promotion of ecological balance as well as conservation of biodiversity. Organizations are found
to regulate organic products that restricts the usage of a good number of pesticides a well as

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fertilizers as farming methods used for production of such products. The chief characteristics of
organic food items includes it is not processed using industrial solvents, irradiation as well as
other synthetic food additives. Teng. and Wang (2015) have pointed out that consumption of
organic food has the potential to prevent a good number of diseases from happening (Mørk et al.
2017). Now days in order to enhance the size and growth of vegetables and fruits, a good number
of chemicals like fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides are used widely in conventional
agriculture and often the residue of the chemicals remains with the same. Consumption of these
chemicals leads to diseases (Agovino et al. 2017). For instance, some of the chief diseases
caused due to consumption of pesticides induced food include asthma, autism, birth effects,
reproductive dysfunction and diabetes. All these diseases can be effectively prevented by the
consumption of organic food items.
Liang (2016) have pointed out that organic food is fresher than inorganic food items since
it lack preservatives that makes it last longer. Majority of times, organic products are produced in
small firms and are sold in nearby areas. Organically raised animals are not injected or fed
antibiotics or growth hormones in order to enhance their mass. Barrena, García and Sánchez
(2015), stated that feeding livestock animals b product increases the risk of mad cow disease.
Not only has this, the usage of antibiotics possessed the potential to create antibiotic resistant
strains of bacteria. Animals that are organically raised provided with more space to move around
and posses greater access to outdoors which in turn help the sae to stay healthy. Dias et al. (2016)
pointed out that the he milk and meat obtained from organic livestock are richer in nutrients like
omega-3 fatty acids.
2.3 Organic food consumers in China

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No wonder the supply in China for better meat, including organic food, has declined. The
fast development in the country has ravaged its atmosphere over the last 30 years. A five-year
survey containing 20% of the country's soil was hazardously polluted in 2014 by the Chinese
Ministry for the Environment (Willer et al. 2018). Many Chinese have been faced with major
controversies including elevated concentrations of heavy steel cadmium in flour, bursting
watermelons backed up with development inhibitors, and the use of clenbuterol steroidum (or
"smooth meat oil") to cause pig body development (Liu, Pieniak and Verbeke 2013). According
to the study conducted by the Thøgersen, Zhou and Huang (2016), consulting firm McKinsey
found 72% of Chinese customers are concerned about their health's damaging meat. The organic
industry in China has risen 30 times in the last century, according to one study team.
The organic food Market initially established in 2010 by an expat community of
performers managed by a few employees (Yu, Gao and Zeng 2014). Following the Beijing
Farmers in Market's Second Meeting the Minnesota Agricultural Policy Institute stated that the
possibility of construction confidence between producers and customers has been found— as
opposed to China's traditional metropolitan moist exchanges, which generally comprise of retail
suppliers, not producers. There is now a group of 19 people in the Fermer 'S industry who
manage daily business activities, a network of 30,000 WeChat supporters and alliances with
sustainable farmers throughout China (Loebnitz and Aschemann-Witzel 2016). There are also
two social centres that distribute and operate consumer education activities. More than 100
plantations around Beijing alone, although accredited, have now been projected to be in
compliance with organic methods. Certification in the organic food market has been a difficult
problem and Chinese legislation does not help (Thøgersen et al. 2017). China has on document
some of the most stringent norms for organic meat in the globe, but it is dubious whether

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customers can support nutrition producers and the capacity of authorities to implement the laws.
The confidence deficit is affected by third party branding because the more than dozen organic
packaging organisations permitted in China have been charged with irregular monitoring,
certifications are given to farmers which can simply afford the price and farm audits are
informed in advance (Scott et al. 2014).
According to Xie (2013), The ambiguity of accreditation has rendered the distinguishing
of what is and is not, actually, natural for customers not easy. People did not believe it was worth
it, and they refused to believe that it is organic when they went through the gate with a food
basket labeled "organic." Bio-chemical advisers are concerned that customers are mistaken about
the distinction with all goods which claim to be organic. China's eating controversies have shown
customers to be sceptical. Many people worry about organics being so expensive, and if it's true,
they don't understand (Zhou, et al. 2013). In a promising growth, cultural networks–especially
the WeChat portable messaging system — both render a journey to the store possible for
customers and render immediate contact between farmers easy. Agriculture producers
distributing products on the Beijing Farmers ' Market ensure clients can readily check the QR
code of their farm to enable clients to put commands on a remote basis. It was discovered that
70-80% of its revenues went via WeChat and Taobao, an additional Chinese e-commerce site
(Loebnitz and Aschemann-Witzel 2016). WeChat is a component of other fields such as Emerald
Bay.
Small organic farms may be better placed to resolve the organic confidence problem, but
they have difficulty being lucrative. Many surveys show that several youthful peasants have

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failed because of elevated cost of resources and poor scalability. According to Golijan and
Popović (2016), In 2009, a former government worker began Emerald Bay Farm, although its
WeChat inventory is now 300 and is increasing. Emerald Bay Farm has yet to fall. Some
producers also recognize the small profit margins for workers in the Beijing Farmers ' Market,
who often return to their corresponding fields (Wee et al. 2014).
However, according to the February 2013 study by renowned Caixin media journal, the
cost of natural meals is still three to five twice that of standard products and sometimes a
decrease. Even in Beijing, one of China's richest cities, per annum disposable income in 2015
amounted only to U.S.$7,200 (Yu, Gao and Zeng 2014). Goldman Sachs says agricultural
employees in China receive approximately $2,000 a year. For many, organic food is either
inexpensive or a pleasure. The two main and tightly interconnected issues the earth faces over
the next few centuries are food safety and environmental degradation. According to the US
Environment Protection Agency, 24% of worldwide greenhouse fuel exports are derived from
cultivation, forestry and soil use, and only 25% from energy and water (Zhang, et al. 2016).
China appears to be taking significant progress in balancing the combined goals of
appropriate nutrition manufacturing and preservation. The nation has conducted a huge initiative
to increase sustainable farming through leadership methods in larger parcels of soil. A latest
study released in Nature quotes that, in a total of 452 counties in the nation from 2005 to 2015,
the initiative reached 20.9 million landowners (Mørk et al. 2017). The complete region
encompassed 37.7 million ha. Initially, 13123 field trials were carried out in various agro-
ecological areas in China. This enabled them to develop localized designs for the leadership of
soil crops. They have used an integrated soil cultivation scheme (ISSM) choice aid scheme to
perform these tests. The vast network of 1,152 investigators, 65,000 expansion officers and

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1,30,000 agribusiness people rendered this massive expansion to peasants in China feasible
(Agovino et al. 2017).
The plan consisted of two components. In the first portion, crop strategy for a given area
was created depending on the land sort, climate trends and other accessible local assets. In this
Part, the crops which were finest adapted for each plant were chosen on the nitrogen (nitrogen,
potassium, and other minerals) and energy availability needed and recommendations have been
developed (Liu, Pieniak and Verbeke 2013). The second component of the initiative consisted of
the suggestions made by the different experts and officers concerned for peasants themselves
depending on these approaches. In the implementation of the agricultural leadership guidelines,
scientists and they have created designs, educated expansion officers and agri‐business staff. In
addition, these people taught peasants in the sector, which allowed for the widespread use of
sustainable agriculture methods in various areas of China to apply science agricultural values on
plantations (Yu, Gao and Zeng 2014).
The experts of the field supplied the conservative landowners, who educated the
remainder of the farming society, with the fundamental understanding and abilities. Farmers '
cooperatives have been reinforced to express their worries about market prices and local
agricultural policy (Scott et al. 2014). They have also been reinforced. The consultation method
was also carried out by bringing into account the opinions of landowners and local professionals
and changing the suggestions consequently. Professionals have been prepared to obtain
information on nutritional, pesticide, air and power use in near proximity to agricultural
operation on the floor (Zhou et al. 2013). This will be used as comparable methods for the
remainder of the nation are intended.

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According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, nutrition
output must be improved by 70 per cent by 2050. The present research shows that the median
returns on bread, corn and corn of three main plants rose by 10.8% to 11.5% (Golijan and
Popović 2016). This productivity rise occurred during the reduction of GHG emissions from
those plants. The scourge of nitrogen pollution is another significant adverse effect of enhanced
agriculture. Agriculture creates two-thirds of world pollution from nitrogen in soil fertility, in
rivers and groundwater pollution, which can be seen in decreased fertility. Sustainable practice
showed that the use of nitrogen fertilisers dropped significantly by 14.7-18.1% (Willer et al.
2017). This implied a nitrogen fertilizer reduction of 1.2 mt. Two reasons for saving US$ 12.2
billion in the nation were the enhanced productivity and reduced fertiliser use. In India there are
also many small-scale landowners, with 67% owning a less than one hectare crop (Garcia and
Teixeira 2017). The achievement of the present venture in China can provide India with
important teaching in aspects of introducing such sustainable management methods to a big
segment of the farming society in the country.
2.3 Organic Food Agricultural Process and Scandal
Agriculture has for decades been the basis of China's industry and is still essential to
global development. According to Regnier-Davies (2015), The growth of China's agriculture has
always been highly influenced by consumer trust and the safety concerns. Whether and how
China can supply its big population is the most basic thing. China has faced this task over the
course of its lengthy existence and continues to experience it as the population expands and the
nation gets rich. In addition, continuing procedures of fast economic growth and urbanization
offer agriculture and rural community not only excellent possibilities but also fresh difficulties
(Garcia and Teixeira 2017). New issues have been raised in multiple fields, such as food safety,

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emissions from agricultural sources, and so on. Despite the biophysical and economic limitations
like extremely irregular allocation of air supplies, China has performed a notable job supplying
22% of the world's inhabitants with 9% of the planet's araable soil (Wee et al. 2014). This has
arrived at a cost at the same moment. Chinese crops, like agriculture in other nations, depend
strongly on local eco-systems ecological services, including soil fertility, air supplies,
pollination, etc. According to Zhu and Jin (2013), Continuous agriculture is leading to severe
pollution and overuse of assets which leads to severe ecological issues such as soil and water
contamination due to unnecessary use of agrochemicals, soil erosion caused by land
transformation, deforestation, etc.

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Chapter 3: Methodology
3.1 Introduction
The methodology is a section of research paper that discuss the process of executing the
research procedure. The procedure of conducting the research is chosen through justifiably
selecting the research philosophy, research approach and research design (Morgeson, Brannick
and Levine 2019). After selecting these sections the data collection and analysis procedure are
chosen. In this methodology all the major factors of the chosen method have been discussed
considering the research philosophy, approach, design, data collection procedure, sampling, data
analysis and ethical consideration.
3.2 Research Philosophy
The research philosophy is the philosophical perspective of a research. In other words,
the research philosophy defines how the research perceive the problem of the research to solve
according to the objective. There are many research philosophies available, however the most
common research philosophies are Positivism, Interpretivism and realism (O'Gorman and
MacIntosh 2014). As per the purpose of this study, it needs to explore the current situation of
organic food market and the trends of organic food consumption in China. For this exploration
this study has used a real-time data collection procedure in a positivist approach. Therefore, the
research philosophy of this research is Positivism philosophy.
3.3 Research Approach
The research approach implies the method of using the research instrument to accomplish
the research goal. The major three types of research approach are Inductive approach, Deductive

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approach and Abductive approach (Kumar 2019). This research does not have any pre
assumption or hypothesis to deduce. Additionally, this study is based on exploring different
variables of organic food market behaviour and their interrelations. Therefore, the approach of
this study is inductive and the chosen research approach is inductive research approach.
3.4 Research Design
Research design is the foundation of any research method that holds the structural model
of research instruments and their utilisation. The research design is based on the selection of the
instrument and their intervention procedures in the research. Based on the research objective the
research design can be subdivided into 3 categories namely Exploratory design, Explanatory
Design and Descriptive design (Leavy 2017). This research has been explored the current
organic food practice, organic food production and the market behaviour in china. Therefore the
chosen research design is exploratory research design. At the same time, there are other divisions
of the research designs as well namely experimental research, cross-sectional research,
longitudinal research, observational research, case study, systematic review and others
(McCusker and Gunaydin 2015). This study focus on both secondary data based research and
cross-sectional field based study design. Therefore the chosen research design is mixed method
design where both cross sectional research and secondary data based research have been used.
3.5 Data collection method
For cross sectional field based data collection the survey method has been used. The
project has been conducted by the inclusion quantitative method where the primary data will be
collected through online survey. The demographical data will be collected through providing 5
ordinal and nominal options. On the other hand, to collect data regarding the perspectives and
opinions the 5 options likert scale has been used.

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3.6 Recruiting Participants and Sampling
The participants of the project are the consumers of organic and inorganic food in china,
who are the active user of social media. Both organic food consumers and non-consumers have
been included. Probability sampling has been used as sampling method through randomised
probability sampling. For survey social media based online survey method will be used involving
50 participants from random sampling in china.
3.7 Data analysis method
Quantitative study implies the analysis of numerical data through using various mathematical
and statistical data analysis. Here both descriptive statistics and Pearson’s co-correlation study
have been used. The mean value distribution and percentage distribution have been used as
descriptive statistical method. For quantitative data analysis descriptive statistics and correlation
statistical method have been followed while using the SPSS 2.0 software for this.
3.8 Ethical Consideration
Before, initiation of the survey each participant will receive a detailed purpose of this research as
well as the assurance of privacy and security of personal data. The survey will contain the age,
gender, address, personal opinion, food consumption practice, educational qualification, financial
background and other details that are considered as the significant component of personal data.
According to data protection and privacy regulation, these data will be stored confidentially and
will not be used in any other purpose except this research. However, there will be no personal
physical safety issue associated with this study since it will be done through online survey.
3.9 Summary

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Chapter 4: Findings and Analysis
4.1 Descriptive statistics
4.2 Correlation of variables
4.3 Discussion
Chapter 5: Conclusion
5.1 Conclusion
5.2 Linking with objectives
5.3 Limitation and further scope

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