Better Fishing Through Ministry Efforts, ActivitiesThe Ministry of Agriculture plans to carry out a series of activities to improve the quality of aquatic products.The ministry will strengthen supervision over quality issues as well as promote quality standards in fishery, said ministry sources. The country's fishery has seen great progress during the past two decades. However, high quality aquatic products account for only a small part of the domestic market, and intensive processing ability is quite low, said Vice-Minister Liu Jian. "We are working to guide fishery enterprises to pay more attention to improving product quality rather than just pursuing quantity," he said. The activities are also expected to strengthen the competitiveness of China's aquatic products in the world market, preserve water ecology and properly utilize fishery resources, he added. Managers of the country's 40,000 fishery enterprises will be offered lectures and training programmes on current regulations of quality and management in fishery. The bureau plans to create at least 100 national and industrial standards of aquatic product and fodder this year, in addition to the existing 43 national standards and 354 industrial standards. The bureau also plans to conduct a survey on aquatic productions, ecologic environment of breeding areas, and fishing boats. The survey's results will be the basis for strengthening quality management in fishing, Liu said. Enterprises found producing substandard goods will be investigated and punished. Ministry statistics indicate that China's total output of aquatic products in 1999 reached 41.2 million tonnes, one-third of the world's total. |
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