Inspection carried out on agricultural products

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has revealed the results of its second routine inspection of the year on the quality of the country's agricultural products, saying in a statement that 97.7 percent of the products it checked met quality standards.

During the inspection, which was conducted in July and August, the ministry carried out spot checks in 31 provincial-level regions, covering fruit and vegetable production bases, abattoirs, farms, markets and trucks carrying vegetables, fruit and aquatic products.

Of the vegetables tested, more than 97 percent met the quality standards. More than 98 percent of the fruits tested met the quality standards. The figure for livestock and poultry products was more than 99 percent, while the pass rate for aquatic products was about 95 percent.

The ministry has promptly informed local agricultural departments of the products that failed to pass the inspection, and asked them to investigate and address the problems within a certain deadline.

The ministry will also conduct research on a differentiated system that enables supervisors to place different degrees of emphasis based on the risk levels of the products.

Fund incentivizes recycling of electric appliances

The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment have decided to set up a special fund to support the recycling of scrapped electrical and electronic products.

The ministries will be in charge of the management of the fund, according to a notice issued recently.

The fund will be operated from this year to 2027, and an assessment will be carried out before its expiration to decide whether to renew it, the ministries said.

China has set up a national catalog of electrical and electronic products with regulated recycling to reduce the negative impact on the environment.

Eligible companies may get support from the fund for recycling scrapped televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and personal computers that are listed in the catalog, the ministries said.

The companies can file applications to provincial-level environmental and financial departments for the fund.

The provincial authorities are required to carefully review the applications, as well as the kinds and number of scrapped products the companies recycled in the previous year, and determine the annual recycling goal their regions should achieve with the support of the fund.

The authorities should then submit relevant documents to the two ministries for further procedures before the final distribution of the fund.

Pilot platforms testing new materials to be increased

Chinese industrial authorities on Friday unveiled a guideline on building more pilot-scale testing platforms for new materials to support the sector's development.

By 2027, the country expects to foster a pilot-scale testing platform system featuring professional construction, market-oriented operation and open services, according to the document jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission.

Toward that end, China plans to build around 300 new material pilot-scale testing platforms and develop about 20 high-level ones between 2024 and 2027, the guideline said.

Efforts will be made to improve the infrastructure, technological support and public services of these platforms, which serve experiments that help put laboratory research outcomes into industrial production, according to the document.

Particular attention will be paid to platforms supporting the development of key generic technologies and materials in areas of petrochemicals, steel, nonferrous metals, inorganic nonmetals and cutting-edge materials, the document added.