Zhoushan in East China's Zhejiang province creates the public brand "Zhousanxian" for its local agricultural products on Oct 12. [Photo/zhoushan.cn]

Zhoushan in East China's Zhejiang province created the public brand "Zhousanxian" for its local agricultural products on Oct 12, according to local media.

"Zhousanxian" shares a similar pronunciation with "Zhoushanxian", referring to the high-quality fishing and agricultural products grown in Zhoushan.

As of the end of June this year, Zhoushan had had 1,932 registered trademarks for agricultural and related products, and five agricultural products in the city had earned national recognition.

The Zhoushan agricultural and rural bureau recently decided to create the unified public brand in order to improve the competitiveness of its fishing and agricultural products and increase the income of local fishermen and villagers.

Users of the "Zhousanxian" label must be certified as either leading agricultural companies, demonstrative agricultural cooperatives, or demonstrative family farms in Zhoushan at the municipal level or above and have not experienced any food safety problems or have no administrative punishments on record for the past three years.

Their products must be certified as pollution-free or organic and have a positive reputation in Zhoushan, while exports must obtain Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems certificates.

Primary agricultural products must be traceable through the Zhejiang Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Traceability Platform and must be labelled with a QR code that displays their origin and processing record.

The Zhoushan bureau authorized 25 fishing and agricultural product suppliers to use the public brand on the day it was established, including producers of local specialties such as Zhoushan blue crabs and Guanyin cakes.