The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee held a consultation meeting in Beijing on Sept 6 to handle the key proposals for promoting produce quality and a safety traceability system. 

Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, presided over the meeting and delivered a speech. He is also the chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee. 

Wang stressed that proposal handling and consulting is an important form of consultation and democracy of the CPPCC, and is of great significance for strengthening direct communication between the proposers and the responsible units and agencies and elevating the effectiveness of proposal handling. 

He noted it is necessary to consistently follow a people-centered approach, keep pursuing progress while ensuring stability, concentrate on priorities, explore characteristics, and gradually realize traceability of agricultural products from farmland to table.

The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee holds a consultation meeting in Beijing on Sept 6, 2019, to handle the key proposals about produce quality and a safety traceability system. Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the chairman of CPPCC National Committee, presided over the meeting and delivered a speech.  [Photo/Xinhua] 

The 12 proposers including units and representatives of CPPCC members advised on issues in the construction of the produce quality and safety traceability system. They discussed various topics such as legal warrants, policy support, regulatory cooperation, and market participation. 

Meeting attendees said that the CPC and the authorities attach great importance to the safety of food and agricultural products, agreeing that the relevant parties have done a lot of arduous and meticulous work so that the quality and safety of agricultural products are now advancing steadily.

The construction of the produce quality and safety traceability system is still in its preliminary stage. It has a long way to go for it faces such challenges as low levels of market participation and consumers awareness. 

The committee members suggested that it is a major institutional innovation to construct a traceability system that will generate multiple achievements to benefit not only the present but also the future. 

Their six main suggestions were as follows: 

First, it is necessary to kept pursuing progress while ensuring stability in constructing a traceability system that meets the country's reality and development stage. 

Second, it is necessary to amend as soon as possible the Law on Quality and Safety of Agricultural Products, expand traceability management targets, identify the subjects of traceability, specify the basis of traceability, and strictly enforce legal responsibilities. 

Third, priority should be given to promoting a traceability system for new agricultural production and management entities, large supermarkets, farmers' markets and key regions and links, and adopting simple and differentiated traceability methods for small- and medium-sized farmers.

Fourth, it is necessary to increase subsidies for production and operation entities involved in tracing equipment and facilities, information collection and label use to boost their enthusiasm for traceability management. 

Fifth, it is necessary to make full use of modern information technologies such as big data and blockchains to improve smart supervision ability, promote the sharing of agricultural product quality and safety data, and build a unified, open, shared, and universal traceability information platform as soon as possible. 

Sixth, it is necessary to widely publicize related laws and policies, popularize the concepts, and formulate a favorable environment in which all of society cares about and uses traceability. 

The consultation meeting also included responsible officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, and the State Administration for Market Regulation. They responded to questions and suggestions put forward by the attending CPPCC National Committee members. They also exchanged ideas, outlined progress made, discussed ongoing problems and shared plans for the next step in the construction of the traceability system. 

Vice-chairmen of the CPPCC National Committee Zhang Qingli and Xia Baolong attended the meeting. Speeches were made by Li Huidong, on behalf of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, Li Shijie, on behalf of the Central Committee of the China Democratic National Construction Association, and representatives of the proposers such as Song Jianchao, Chen Mengshan, Tian Huiguang, Wang Jing, Li Wu, Wang Yuyu, Pan Xiaoyan, Zhi Shuping, Lin Wu, and Qiao Xiaoling.