China's flower industry has made notable achievements in recent years. By 2004 the plant area of flowers reached 636,000 hectares; the productive value of flower industry hit 43.06 bln yuan and foreign exchange earned by export of flowers reached 140 mln US dollars. China has become world's biggest flower production base, the reporter learned from the inaugural meeting for the standardization committee for flowers and committee for flower authentication held in Beijing.

China has advantages in developing flower industry, because it has various climates, low labor and land costs, huge consumption potential. However, problems like inappropriate industrial structure, too fast increase in planting area, backward production technology and inferior quality of products, enterprises' lack of competitiveness, etc. On the other hand, standardization and authentication of flowers are relatively backward, so standardization and authentication systems for flowers must be established without delay.

The establishment of the standardization committee for flowers and committee for flower authentication will speed up flower industry's transformation from being quantity-oriented to quality-oriented and rectify transactions, promote the industry's capacity to earn foreign exchange with exports.

By People's Daily Online