Guizhou's organic food sector booms in first three quarters

During the first three quarters of the current year, the value of total output of the organic food industry in Southwest China's Guizhou province came in at 119.5 billion yuan ($18.71 billion) – a year-on-year increase of 7.3 percent – ranking it second among Guizhou's top 10 industries.

Projections are that by the end of the year, the total output value of Guizhou's organic food sector will hit 160 billion yuan, overfulfilling the annual target.

From January to September, Guizhou was home to 9,315 organic food companies – 8,661 of which have annual revenue of fewer than 20 million yuan each. Moreover, earnings from the food manufacturing and agricultural sideline food processing business of these companies increased by 62.2 percent and 22.2 percent year-on-year, respectively.

During the nine months, Guizhou introduced 311 new organic food projects with a total investment of 24.77 billion yuan, ranking it first among the province's top 10 industries.

The total output value of Guizhou's planting, animal husbandry, forestry and fishery sectors was 231.44 billion yuan, 71.4 billion yuan, 21.53 billion yuan and 5.16 billion yuan, respectively, during the first three quarters of the year.

Guizhou's output of chili peppers, tea, kiwi fruit, blueberries, passion fruit and false starwort – a root extract used in traditional Chinese medicine – ranked it among China's top producers during the period.

Plans are for Guizhou to speed up the development of more large-scale farms, plantations and other facilities to provide raw materials for organic food production.