Sonja and I have been tossing around the idea of an organic chinese veggie farm for a few years. To be honest, except for the avocado plants, my agricultural experiments have been quite disappointment. That aside, here a few interesting links we found. The USDA has a brief article on the growing popularity of organic vegetables in Hong Kong. Dr. Subhuti Dharmananda at the Institute for Traditional Medicine offers a brief history on organic herb cultivation in China. Earthbound Farm, a familiar name to Costco shoppers, has a short online account on how it all started (2.5 acres and 20 years ago by two kids from Manhattan out of college...). Today, their products sit in 74% of all US supermarkets, and, according to Hoovers, they had sales of $350 million in 2003. Not bad. They are at about 20,000 acres now.
Update
I found a large organic Chinese vegetable operation - Purepak, Inc. Based out of Oxnard, CA, Dean Walsh directs about 5000 acres of farms in California and exports to Japan, Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Great Britain. Purepak has a chart of their products. Interestingly, Walsh started in 1986, only a couple years after Earthbound Farm. On the menu, Bok Choy, Baby Bok Choy, Baby Choy Sum, Short Choy Sum, Tiny Choy Sum, Gai Lan, Snow Pea Tips, Sugar Pea Tips, Tung Ho (<-- not my favorite), and Yu Choy. I'm interested in something exactly like the Earthbound Farm product, pre-packed, pre-washed, pre-cut, ready-to-go organic Chinese veggies.
If Purepak can import Chinese vegetables to Japan, the way to go is to import Chinese or other vegetables from China to the U.S. Of course, there will be some trade issues to protect local farmers.
Posted by torque at January 15, 2005 10:52 PM | TrackBack