CHINAGAP certification and development recommendations

In recent years, the certification of China good agricultural practice(CHINAGAP) has shown substantial significance in promoting China agricultural production standardization, ensuring food quality and safety, and increasing agricultural product export. Over the last eight years, the CHINAGAP certification had contributed remarkable benefits to economy, society, ecology and other areas. In this paper, a statistical diagram methodology was adopted to analyze the feature and changing trend on scale, structure, regional distribution and applicant composition of the CHINAGAP since it was first adopted in 2006. Our results showed that the development of CHINAGAP has the following characteristics. Firstly, the total certification number grew rapidly from 40 to 652 per year. Secondly, the regional distribution structure of?certified products was clearly developed. Thirdly, the certified product classification was explicit and stable. The last, the applicant composition was diversified. Apart from the benefits of CHINAGAP, the existing problems?were also discussed, such as insufficient total numbers, uneven development between different regions, incomplete of applicant composition, etc. Based on the current analysis and?international GAP experiences, we raised a number of policy suggestions to promote the healthy and sustainable development of CHINAGAP for the future, including speeding up the extension of total numbers, specifically directing regional development, optimizing applicant composition, and building up CHINAGAP brands and markets as well.