• Food Safety is a key focus for the government due to demands at home and abroad for tighter controls and stricter measures.
• Modern retail in China is growing at 50% per year -but retailers reach only ¼ of the 500 million consumers who live on or near the 3000 largest cities and towns.
• China’s population is 1.3 billion but only about 400 million live in urban area.
• The costs of medical treatment and lost productivity in China due to food related   diseases have now reached 14 billion dollars annually.
• Leasing agricultural land in China is often as expensive as in developed countries due to the lack of a formal market for land.
• There are over 200 million farms of 1-2 acres in size often spread across four to five different unconnected plots.
• Sales of organic vegetables increased 88% in 12 months through November 2006 at one Wal-Mart store in Beijing.
• Additional costs associated with producing “safe†food erode certain price advantages in buying from China.
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