On January 14-17, 2008, Small Farmers Adapting to Global Markets Project (SFAGM) held a training workshop on food safety and quality management system in Beijing. A total of 30 representatives from government agencies, processing companies and farmers associations in Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Xinjiang, Hunan, Hubei, Yunnan and Guangxi participated in the training.

The training is one of the seven management modules developed by SFAGM that has been held successfully four times in the past three years with positive feedbacks. Since food safety has been the priority for the governments at all levels and the industry, this training was again held at the request of Chinese side this year in order to adapt to the changing situation. It included eight subjects and two field visits, involving GAP, ISO9000, green and organic food certification system, system on farm products free of pollution, quality and safety guarantee system on pig farms in Canada, Agricultural Products Quantity and Safety Law of the People's Republic of China and the dual structure of agricultural produce. The participants visited Beijing Xiaotangshan Special Vegetable Base and Beijing Longjian Tian Hong Shun Duck Industry Co., Ltd.

Beijing Xiaotangshan Special Vegetable Base of Beijing Agro-Tech Extension Station, situated in Changping District, northern Beijing, has a history of 23 years and has now been reformed to become the Beijing Tian An Agricutural Development Co., Ltd. According to the manager of the base, since 1999, the company has produced green and organic vegetables instead of special kinds and now it supplies more than 150 kinds of vegetables to totally 75 supermarkets, with an average of 60-120 kinds every day. The area of the production bases has expanded from 400 mu to 5200 mu involving 2100 farm households in Beijing, Hebei and Yunan, etc. In 2001, it received ISO9001 Quality Systems certification. In 2005, it was selected as the pilot enterprise for agricultural products tracing system and thus began to code each plot and greenhouse, record and keep production history, standardize production and operation procedures and carry out sample test for all products before they go to the market. In May 2006, the “Xiaotangshan” products with tracing code - an electronic label - began to enter supermarkets.

Beijing Longjian Tian Hong Shun Duck Industry Co., Ltd. is an agribusiness that is engaged in duck breeding, hatching and raising, feedstuff processing, butchering and processing of cooked and uncooked food. It boasts an annual production of18 millions of meat ducks, daily slaughter of 50,000 ducks, annual production of fresh duck 46, 800 tons, 160,000 breed ducks on hand and an annual production of 22.1 million eggs. It received ISO9001 and HACCP certification of Beijing HSL Certification Service last year.

This training was organized by Beijing HSL Certification Service entrusted by SFAGM. It involved both classroom lectures and field visits and has achieved the expected results.