Organic certification simply do not exist in China.
Thank you for your interest in the Goji berry. There is still market confusionabout what is 'Goji' Berries and that confusion was initially caused by MLMcompanies selling goji juice products and writing product material without enough accurate information.
Other companies then copied that false information and created new spins. It is now completely out of control!
Provided herein is information about the false organic status of the Chinese Lycium barbarusold
as m being sold as 'Goji' and a monograph from the Tanaduk Botanical Research Institute pointing out the difference
between these two lycium berries.
We can start with the question regarding
Western and Chinese marketers of Lycium barbarum —the wolfberry. It is being called a "Goji" berry
and false documentation is being provided thereby giving it "organic status". This is coming
from China and and is being presented to the European Union (EU) regulatory agency for transfer of status. The claim
is that it is being passed on to the National Organic Program (NOP) of the USDA for approval. However, so far there is
no public record of USDA approval of any wolfberry or goji product. Any certified organic labeling or claim of organic
status is being done illegally!
The EU is being presented fraudulent
Chinese phyto certificates and agricultural documents for transfer of status to get organic certification through the European
agents and then using those documents for transfer status to the NOP and USA organic markets. That document routing trail
has been checked and it was discovered that Chinese manufacturers and their food brokers were providing fraudulent documents to
get their product into organic markets in the UK & the U.S.
There
is no organic certification for Chinese wolfberries — Lycium barbarum —the berry that is incorrectly
called Goji, nor is there for any food or botanical coming out of China. Organic certification simply do not exist in
China and here is why:
Pesticide Use In China
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pesticides are conventionally used in commercial wolfberry cultivation to mitigate destruction of the delicate berries by
insects. Since the early 21st century, high levels of pyrethroid insecticide residues (including fenvalerate, and cypermethrin)
and fungicide residues (such as triadimenol) have been detected by the United States Food and Drug Administration on imported
wolfberries and wolfberry products of Chinese origin, leading to the seizure of these products. Due to the demand for organic
products in the West, some Chinese growers are beginning to experiment with integrated pest management and to explore the
possibility of obtaining organic certification, something that does not yet exist in China.
Some Western resellers may state that their wolfberries are organically grown when in fact they are not.
Wolfberries are now often marketed as Goji berries. The Green Certificate claimed by some wolfberry marketers to be the equivalent
of the United States Department of Agriculture's "USDA Organic"seal is in actuality simply an agricultural training
program for China's rural poor. China's Green Food Standard administered by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture's
China Green Food Development Center, does permit pesticide and herbicide use.
Despite
some claims that wolfberries sold in Europe, the United States and Canada meet organic standards, there is no public evidence
for standardized organic certification of wolfberries from the regions where they are grown in China. No organic certification
of Lycium berries exits. Any bags of Goji berries labeled with the ingredient Lycium barbarum with organic certified seals
such as USDA certified organic are false. Often, these wolfberries are marketed as Tibetan or Himalayan Goji Berries and that
is false information. Goji products that list Lycium barbarum as the ingredient are not organic and they are not authentic
'Gojis'.
The areas where Tibetan Lycium 'Goji'
berries grow are so remote that no pesticides have ever been used or needed.
