The mainland's organic food producers are reaping the harvest of recent food safety scares, even though many consumers find 'green' products hard to stomach because of high prices.
'We think this is the golden age for organic food enterprises to develop in China,' said Zhang Ming, general manager of the Beijing Organic Farm Development Co, which sells vegetables, fruit, nuts and dairy products.
'In recent years, China has had many serious food safety accidents and problems. But for us, whenever there are problems, there are opportunities,' he said.
The company was established in 2000, starting with co-operation with farmers to produce organic vegetables and then helping them to sell their products to supermarkets.
However, changing the mindset of farmers has proved to be difficult, forcing the company to set up its own farms.
'Although farmers could sell organic food at a higher price, they still wanted to use pesticides or chemical fertiliser to lower the cost,' Mr Zhang said. 'Now we have bought several farms and started hiring farmers to produce organic food according to our standards.'