In a public hearing on agricultural safety and upgrading as well as traceability held on
January 7 at the Legislative Yuan, some scholars expressed their worries that the traceability
system might be disrupted because of policy change. But the Council of Agriculture (COA) said
in order to promote healthful agriculture after taking into consideration different requirements
of farmers and consumers, it has taken such safety agriculture management measures as GAP (Good
Agriculture Practice), traceability and organic agricultural product certifications
simultanneously to ensure agricultural product safety.

So far a total of 1,694 agricultural operators have passed traceability certification, and the
area devoted to organic agricultural production is expected to increase from 2,923 hectares in
2009 to 3,500 hectares in 2010, said the COA. And GAP production areas will increase from 19,143 to 24,000 hectares, with the estimated output value of products with GAP, CAS, organic and traceability labels growing to NT$60 billion in 2010. The Council noted that the multiple-pronged promotion is in farmers' favor because it allows them to choose the certification suited to the
special features of their product. And since the government has been strictly checking on GAP,
traceability and organic certifications, consumers definitely will get better guarantee!

The COA said that the agricultural product traceability system has been promoted among voluntary
farmers because it is based on Taiwan Good Agricultural Practice (TGAP), third-party validation
system and information tracking system, with the main goal of bringing the system in line with
related foreign certification and validation systems. But the procedures are quite complicated
with high certification costs, and aging farmers have probelems operating information system to
key in all related data. Despite the actual difficulties of promoting the traceability system
among farmers, the COA is still selecting suitable agricultural products to promote traceability
based on the three principles: 1) traceability is required in the export markets; 2) selling
channels are guaranteed; and 3) the products are suspected to have safety risks.

GAP certification, which has the functions of assisting farmers in safe application of agricultural
chemicals and tracking the source of goods, is easier for an all-out promotion and the COA has
listed it as one of the key safety agriculture measures, because it is widely accepted by farmers,
consumers and foreign purchasing managers after being promoted for many years and its certification
costs less.

The COA pointed out that 1,694 operators have passed traceability certification so far, fully
demonstrating the Council has not weakened its determination to pursue food safety by promoting the traceability system. As to reduced traceability budget, it is mainly because the COA planned full
subsidy of traceability certification fees to farmers in the first three years when it started to
promote the system in 2007 and gradual decrease of the subsidy beginning in 2010 (down to 2/3
between 2010 and 2012 and further down to 1/2 between 2013 and 2015). Since the subsidy to farmers will be decreased starting in 2010 as originally planned, so the traceability budget is reduced
accordingly. The COA is definitely not making less efforts to promote the system as some people
claimed.

The Council stressed that in order to strengthen the overall competitiveness of local agricultural
products both at home and abroad, protect consumers' food safety and health and create the general
image of quality agriculture, the COA has listed "farm product safety" as its policy focus in 2010.
The Council will actively promote the seamless farm produce safety management system, strengthen
management of the source of goods, establish crop health management mode, reinforce inspections and examinations of agricultural chemical residues, and enhance agricultural product safety management from production to consumers through various channels.

Under this system, organic agriculture production areas are expected to increase from 2,923 hectares in 2009 to 3,500 hectares in 2010 and GAP production areas will be expanded from 19,143 hectares in 2009 to 24,000 hectares in 2010, with the estimated output value of agricultural products with GAP, CAS, organic and traceability labels reaching NT$60 billion in 2010. Since such safety agriculture policy measures as GAP, traceability, organic farm produce, premium agricultural product have different attributes to satisfy consumers' different requirements, the COA will promote and manage all the measures simultaneously to establish a consummate safety agriculture management system and stride forward to make Taiwan a toxic-free island, giving consumers better safety guarantee!