Page 21 - Sphere No.27 (Sep 2010)

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Sphere
Recent years have seen rapidly increasing demand for natural food, uncontaminated during its produc-
tion by chemicals now perceived as damaging to both the environment and consumers’ health.
“The global organic food market has grown in 2009 to USD60 billion, and is expected to be around USD100
billion in 2010, according to the Datamonitor Global Organic Food Report 2010,” said Ole Walter, Commercial
Director of the Consumer Products Division of Hutchison China MediTech Limited (Chi-Med). “The driver be-
hind this enormous growth is the health and environmental awareness of consumers all over the world,” he added.
Although organic products have been available in Asia for some time, most have reached regional markets
extravagantly marked up as they progressed through circuitous distribution networks leading to uncompetitive
pricing at point of sale.
Ella Kwan is a mother of three who said she is particularly concerned that her children eat healthily, but found
the expense and the lack of choice a problem.
“I have been buying organic fruit and vegetables for some time, but there has not been much of a selection of
other organic food products to choose from. A bigger choice would make it much easier to move towards a largely
organic diet,” she observed.
A bigger choice is now available, with the establishment of Hutchison Hain Organic (Hong Kong) Ltd (HHO), a
joint venture with leading American natural and organic products company, The Hain Celestial Group Inc, which is
launching more than 3,000 natural and healthy organic products from over 40 popular US brands, initially in Hong
Kong, and then in Mainland China and around the region.
Because there are no distributor mark-ups, most of the Hain Celestial Products for sale in A S Watson’s retail outlets
cost around 30 per cent less than competing organic products offered by other retailers.
There is not much doubt that this means organic produce will feature far more prominently in most Hong Kong
consumers’ shopping baskets. But what exactly does the term “organic” signify? It seems that many
people have their own ideas.
Nutritionist Wallace Ngai, Chairman of the Asian Nutrition Academy, an institution
established in 2001 by a group of health care professionals to offer education in nutrition
and weight management, said “With organic food people consider three different things.
The first is nutritional value, the second is sensory quality, and the third is food safety. For
the first there isn’t a very significant difference between organic and non-organic food,
although in terms of mineral content organic products can be of slightly higher quality.
Introducing an
We’re all keen to be green nowadays, but what
exactly does going organic mean?
By William Martyn
Organic
Lifestyle