It may be 2009, but it appears that in some sectors of corporate Yunnan, other companies' intellectual property rights mean very little.

Yunnan-based coffee producer Hogood Coffee (云南德宏后谷咖啡有限公司) is playing the victim after government employees confiscated Hogood non-dairy creamer which was illegally using the "Coffee-Mate" (咖啡伴侣) name, which in China is a registered trademark of multinational food and beverage giant Nestlé.

On September 3, around 12,000 bags of Hogood-produced non-dairy creamer packaged under the name "Coffee-Mate" were seized by Industrial and Commercial Bureau employees in the Panlong district. Panlong officials confirmed the next day that the confiscation was a response to a complaint filed by Nestlé.

However, on September 15 a Nestlé China public relations manager reportedly claimed that Nestlé had filed no such complaint. The source of the complaint is currently under investigation by the Panlong government.

Hogood CEO Xiong Xiangru (熊相入) told reporters after the confiscation that the company had no idea that Coffee-Mate was a trademark – despite it being clearly marked as such on all Nestlé Coffee-Mate products.

Xiong's denial seems more implausible considering that Hogood has been a supplier of beans to Nestlé, which it grows on farms in Dehong in southern Yunnan.

The Yunnan Coffee Industry association is standing behind Hogood, insisting that Nestlé should not continue to "monopolize" the Coffee-Mate trademark and that Nestlé should let Chinese companies use the name on their own products.

Yunnan Coffee Industry Association vice secretary-general Hu Lu (胡路) put the following argument forward for why Nestlé should rescind the trademark that it has successfully built up in China and throughout the world:


Other Chinese coffee producers have been fined for violating the Coffee-Mate trademark in the past, according to the report.

Acknowledging that Nestlé was one of the main driving forces behind the development of China's coffee market, Hogood CEO Xiong pleaded to "big brother" Nestlé to rescind its Coffee-Mate trademark in order to bring "fair competition" to the Chinese coffee market.

The main questions that this particular episode of intellectual property rights violation raises are:

1. Should Nestlé or other companies with trademarks that have entered everyday parlance as a term representative of a certain type of product (think Coke, Hoover, Xerox) be forced to give up their trademarks because they've been marketed successfully?

2. If Nestlé were to bow to the weak logic of the above arguments and revoke its Coffee-Mate trademark in China, what would prevent the trademark being snapped up by a Chinese company who would prevent other companies from using it in China?

3. Is it possible that a company calling itself "Hogood" in English is unwilling to invest the necessary resources into the development of its own corporate identity and product branding, preferring rather to whine about "fair competition" after blatantly violating a registered trademark almost eight years after China's accession to the World Trade Organization?

Editor's note: As interest in Yunnan cuisine increases around China and the rest of the world, GoKunming contributor Guo Duomi will occasionally offer recipes for traditional Yunnan and Chinese dishes. If there is a certain dish you would like to see a recipe for, please send us your ideas via our contact form.

Eggplant cooked in red sauce – Hongshao qiezi (红烧茄子)
Eggplant or aubergine is a staple in not only Yunnan cuisine but Chinese cuisine around the country. Similarly, soy sauce-based hongshao dishes are available all over China.

Two types of eggplant can be found at produce markets around China. The first is the plump, dark purple vegetable well known in the West, the second is a longer, thinner version with striking bright purple skin. The bright purple variant is more prevalent but it may be substituted with the other as taste does not differ between the two.

Ingredients
2 medium eggplants
5 sprigs of spring onion
2 small green Chinese capsicums*
5-10g ginger
3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp black pepper
Oil for frying
* Using zhoupi lajiao (皱皮辣椒) – a slightly spicy wrinkly-skinned variety of capsicum – is recommended for this dish. If zhoupi lajiao is unavailable, you can substitute with a standard green or red capsicum.

Method
Slice off the top and then slice the eggplants into strips around 3 centimetres long. Wash and chop up the spring onion into two centimetre lengths and chop the capsicum into small pieces. Wash the ginger thoroughly and slice thinly, leaving the skin on. Peel the garlic and slice it thinly.

Heat 3 – 4 tablespoons of oil in a wok on high heat and add the eggplant. Stir thoroughly until the eggplant has taken up all of the oil, then fry for around five minutes, shifting the eggplant around occasionally but giving it time to cook without being disturbed.

Ultimately you want your eggplant to be browned on the outside and reasonably mushy, you will find it gives back a lot of the oil to the pan when ready.

Once cooked remove the eggplant to a plate, leaving the oil in the wok.

Lower the heat slightly and add the spring onion, capsicum, garlic and ginger to the wok. Stir fry them together for around a minute and then return the eggplant to the wok.

Add in the salt, pepper and soy sauce and stir to mix thoroughly. Transfer to a plate and serve.

Happy Eating!

Dr Jakob Klein is a lecturer in social anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London who has spent years studying food production in China, most recently investigating the production of organic foods in Yunnan for consumption elsewhere. Recently back in Kunming investigating Yunnan food culture, Klein spoke with GoKunming about the state of Yunnan's organic food industry and where it's headed:

GoKunming: What initially piqued your interest in the organic food market in Kunming?

Dr Jakob Klein: When planning research in 2005 on emerging organic food networks in China, Kunming stood out as an ideal place for several reasons. The province is promoted as a centre of biodiversity, and the city itself has an active and internationally well-connected environmentalist scene. Some of these groups have been actively furthering organic food consumption in Kunming and I was curious to learn more about them.

Furthermore, unlike Beijing and Shanghai, where markets in organics and other ecologically certified foods have been around for some time, in Kunming they have emerged more recently, giving me the opportunity to follow developments almost from the beginning. I was also excited by the recent development of Yunnan's export-led horticulture – the products being sold mostly to China's Eastern seaboard and increasingly to Southeast Asia – and was keen to learn about the possible role of organics in this, and whether this might have an impact on local consumption and debates.

GK: What are the main organic products produced in Yunnan?

JK: Tea is by far the most significant, whether in terms of acreage, market value or number of certified producers. Other important products include fresh green vegetables and green beans, root vegetables, rice, fruit juices, walnuts and honey. There is now also one certified organic pork producer in the province.

GK: During your research in Kunming, what did you find the prevalent concept of organic food among local residents to be?

JK: The term 'organic food' (有机食品) is not widely used beyond the industry and the small number of committed consumers. Many Kunmingers have not heard the term at all, and others find it awkward – it carries none of the positive connotations of the English term, if anything it is associated with organic chemistry. However, other terms such as 'green food' (绿色食品), 'ecological food' (生态食品) and 'no public harm food' (无公害食品) have become part of Kunmingers' vocabulary.

Indeed, it is not uncommon now to find food vendors, especially those who claim to have grown the foods themselves, referring to their (uncertified) vegetables as 'green foods' or 'ecological foods'. Several interviewees tell me that these terms, which many use interchangeably, imply that the foods have been produced without chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and many describe the foods as being 'natural' and 'healthy'.

At the same time, people are often sceptical of the various 'ecologically certified' foods found in supermarkets, and this has partly to do with a widespread distrust of labels and partly with the common perception that supermarket vegetables in general are 'not fresh'.

GK: What does it take to be certified as organic in China?

JK: Quite a lot of money and organizational capacity! This is one of the reasons why none of the certified producers in Yunnan are peasant farmers, but instead agribusinesses that either contract out production to farmers and/or hire workers. Usually it takes about three years to convert to organic production, and once certified, producers are inspected annually. Criteria include, above all, a rejection of the use of agrichemicals and GMOs [genetically modified organisms], but there are also other environmental criteria, for example to do with water quality and geographical distance from 'conventional' producers.

GK: How do Chinese organic standards compare to those in other countries?

JK: China's main domestic certifier, the Organic Food Development Center (OFDC), is accredited by IFOAM, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, and the standards are comparable to those of other similarly recognized organizations, such as Eco-Cert or the Soil Association.

At the same time, whether we are talking about China, California or Italy it is important to recognize that organic certification schemes, even assuming that rules are consistently adhered to, actually allow for a great variety of 'organic' farming practices with different philosophies and different environmental and social effects.

GK: What is the difference between foods certified as 'Green Food' and food certified as organic in China?

JK: Green Food and Organic Food are certified by two different organizations affiliated with different government bodies. Green Food allows for the limited use of certain chemical fertilizers, pesticides and other agrichemicals. However, a second tier of Green Food, labelled 'AA', is produced mostly for export markets and is internationally recognized as 'organic'.

GK: Demographically speaking, what types of Kunming residents are likely to spend extra grocery money on organic foods?

JK: There are no reliable data on this. Some organic producers and retailers have described the typical organic consumer as 'well-educated' and earning a high income. My own research with Kunming food shoppers, which is largely qualitative, suggests that regular consumers of organics tend to be found among the 'new rich', and also that some Kunmingers associate such foods with elite consumption habits and practices of social distinction.

According to some retailers, organics are particularly popular among women and among the elderly. Again, this is to some extent supported in my interviews with shoppers, and among these 'segments' organics fit into wider strategies of health – not only for themselves but also for their families. After all, women are often the main food shoppers in Kunming households, and in many multi-generational households elderly members do a lot of the family's shopping and cooking.

GK: Have food safety problems such as the recent melamine scandal brought more attention to organic produce?

JK: Undoubtedly. The melamine scandal is only the most recent in a series of food safety scares, which have been widely reported in the Chinese media since the 1990s. My interviews with Kunmingers suggest that in recent years their main food safety concerns have shifted from risks associated with spoilage and poor hygiene in kitchens or markets – which they describe as more manageable – to worries about 'contamination' (污染) in the production process itself, including adulteration, industrial pollution and – especially – the use or overuse of chemical pesticides, fertilizers and growth hormones.

Those informants who do purchase 'organic' products invariably cite these concerns as a key reason for doing so. For their part, purveyors of organics market their products as 'natural', 'healthy', 'hygienic' foods that can help consumers manage food safety risks, and environmental activists promoting organic food consumption convey similar messages.

GK: Most of Yunnan's organic produce leaves the province for markets such as Beijing and Shanghai; when do you see a significant portion of Yunnan's organic food output being consumed in Yunnan?

JK: Not anytime soon. Even producers that have previously focussed on the Kunming market are increasingly looking to the more lucrative domestic coastal and export markets. Having said that, the two developments are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and some observers argue that China's growing importance as an exporter of organic foods is having a knock-on effect on domestic markets, and the same may happen in Yunnan.

GK: What impact is the consumption of pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and hormones in non-organic food having on China's health?

JK: This is a complex and hotly debated issue, and not one that I am especially qualified to answer. Let me just say a few things about pesticides. First, although underreported there is growing documentation of the health effects on appliers of pesticides, i.e. farmers. These involve both acute pesticide poisonings, in some cases leading to deaths, and various chronic effects including cancers.

When it comes to consumers the effects of currently used pesticides are less well known, although this obviously does not mean that they do not exist, not least if we consider the frequent reports in China of vegetables being sold with illegal amounts of pesticide residues. Again, there is an issue of acute poisonings often going unreported or undetected, and there is insufficient knowledge about the cumulative effects of low-level exposure through food consumption to a variety of agrichemicals and pollutants.

Editor's note: As interest in Yunnan cuisine increases around China and the rest of the world, GoKunming contributor Guo Duomi will occasionally offer recipes for traditional Yunnan and Chinese dishes. If there is a certain dish you would like to see a recipe for, please send us your ideas via our contact form.

Stir-fried lily bulb and celery – Xiqin chao baihe (西芹炒百合)
The waterlily is a well known ornamental flower. In Yunnan you can purchase dried lily flowers for use in cooking or to make tea and the gigantic lily leaf is also used to make tea. Not to be outdone the lily bulb also makes its way into local recipes, producing crunchy little 'ears' which are similar in nutritional quality to the potato.

Ingredients
2 lily bulbs
1 small carrot
1 stalk celery
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp cornflour
Oil for frying

Method
Break up the lily bulbs into numerous small 'ears'. Clean these with water and, using a small knife, cut away the outer edge to clean away most of the brown colouration. Wash well and then boil in a pot of salted water for 4 minutes, remove and drain.

In the meantime slice up the carrot and celery into small pieces and mix the cornflour with 2 tablespoons of water to form a paste.

Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a wok on high heat and add the carrot and celery. Fry for around 30 seconds before adding the lily bulbs and salt. Stir fry for around 2 minutes and then add the cornflour/water mixture.

Mix thoroughly, then remove from the heat and transfer to a plate to serve.

Happy eating!

Editor's note: As interest in Yunnan cuisine increases around China and the rest of the world, GoKunming contributor Guo Duomi will occasionally offer recipes for traditional Yunnan dishes. If there is a certain dish you would like to see a recipe for, please send us your ideas via our contact form.

Pumpkin and Potato Soup - nangua yangyu tang (南瓜洋芋汤)
Soup in Yunnan, as in most of China, is a part of almost every meal. It is not eaten as an entrée - it comes along with or after the other dishes. Diners are not provided with a separate bowl to take their soup and sometimes will not even be given a spoon! This necessitates a graceful slurping of one's soup directly from the bowl – fun for those of us who yearn for the simple days when we finished the milk in our breakfast cereal bowl in like fashion.

Ingredients
1 medium sized pumpkin*
4 small potatoes
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp oil

*Pumpkins in Yunnan are not the big orange fellows that often run by that name in the West but are smaller and more squashlike. If you are in an area where Yunnanese/Chinese pumpkin is unavailable butternut and acorn squashes are acceptable substitutes.

Method
Peel the potatoes and chop them into bite sized chunks. Remove the stem from the pumpkin and chop it into pieces which are slightly larger than the potatoes. The image below shows the potatoes post peel but pre chop.

Boil the potatoes and squash in a covered pot containing 1.5-2 litres of water for 30 minutes. Uncover and add the salt and oil. Serve alongside the other dishes with your meal. If you want to get particularly local in your eating habits then ladle some soup into your bowl when it is full of rice – a surprisingly enjoyable eating experience.

Guo's tip – Some meat or vegetable stock can be used to provide more flavour to the soup, this could be from other dishes you are cooking or stock powder. Also rather than adding fresh oil to the soup you can add oil which has been used to cook other dishes and is no longer needed. Be sparing in adding more flavour however as this is not a dish designed to be served on its own. Soup served at the Yunnan table is light and clear in order to complement the strong flavours of the other dishes.

Happy Eating!

Editor's note: As interest in Yunnan cuisine increases around China and the rest of the world, GoKunming contributor Guo Duomi will occasionally offer recipes for traditional Yunnan dishes. If there is a certain dish you would like to see a recipe for, please send us your ideas via our contact form.

Golden sands corn – jinsha yumi (金沙玉米)
Corn is widely grown throughout Yunnan, so much so that it's almost impossible to make a trip to the province without coming across a house festooned with drying ears. Golden sands corn is a specialty dish found in Yunnan which sees the corn prepared in a most unorthodox and tasty way.

Ingredients
300g of corn kernels
2 sprigs of spring onion
3 salted egg yolks*
2 tbsp of Chinese yellow wine**
100g corn starch
Oil for frying

* Salted eggs are ordinarily duck eggs which have been preserved by soaking in brine. They are readily available in markets and supermarkets throughout China and from Chinese grocers in the West.

** There are numerous types of Chinese yellow wine (huangjiu, 黄酒) which can be used in cooking. You should use a dry wine without further additives such as Shaoxing wine (绍兴黄酒).

Method
Put the salted egg yolks in a bowl, place them in a steamer and steam for 10 minutes. When the yolks are cooked add in the rice wine and mix with a spoon to form a paste.

In the meantime chop the spring onion into 1cm lengths, discarding the white bulb (Guo's tip – if you place the spring onion bulbs in a glass of water or replant them in soil they will produce a never ending supply of green stalk which can be harvested fresh whenever you need it). Wash the corn and drain (if you are using canned corn simply drain the can) then mix the still-wet corn with the cornflour until well coated. Discard any remaining cornflour.

Heat 4-5 tablespoons of oil in a wok on high heat and add the corn, fry for about 4 minutes until golden brown. Remove the corn from the wok, leaving behind a tablespoon or so of oil (if there is no oil left you will need to add more). Add the spring onions to the wok and fry for about 30 seconds, add the salted egg yolk paste and fry for a further 30 seconds. Return the corn to the wok and mix all ingredients thoroughly. Remove from heat and transfer to a plate to serve.

Happy Eating!

Image: 51fxb.com

Editor's note: As interest in Yunnan cuisine increases around China and the rest of the world, GoKunming contributor Guo Duomi will occasionally offer recipes for traditional Yunnan dishes. If there is a certain dish you would like to see a recipe for, please send us your ideas via our contact form.

Lotus root with preserved vegetables - yancai oupian (腌菜藕片)
The lotus root is a common ingredient in many Chinese cuisines, being much more abundant than it is in Western countries. In Yunnan during the warmer months it is often eaten cold in a soy and vinegar marinade. During winter this recipe featuring preserved vegetables (yancai - 腌菜) makes a nice accompanying dish.

Ingredients
1 large lotus root
½ cup of mixed preserved vegetables*
2 dried chillies
1 tsp salt
Oil for frying
* Preserved vegetables are available in infinite variety in China and from Asian groceries worldwide. Those typically available in Yunnan will contain some chilli and a variant like that pictured is recommended for use in this recipe.

Method
Peel the lotus root and slice it thinly. Add about two tablespoons of oil to a wok on high heat, break up the chillies by hand and fry for about thirty seconds.

Add the lotus roots and the salt and stir fry for around 1 minute. Add about ½ a cup of water to the wok and stir fry for a further minute. Add the preserved vegetables and cook for around 45 seconds until well heated through. Transfer to a plate and serve.

Happy Eating!

Last Friday in Beijing, Yunnan provincial party secretary Bai Enpei (白恩培) told reporters that if the province's environment is destroyed "Yunnan will have absolutely nothing".

One of the major environmental issues in Yunnan is the widespread use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, whose runoff is one of the main contributors to the severe pollution of Dianchi Lake in recent decades.

With this in mind, GoKunming, Salvador's Coffee House and The Oasis Gift Shop (in between the eastern end of Wenhua Xiang and the middle of Wenlin Jie) have come together to create GreenKunming, a new organic food distribution system.

Beginning this Friday, there will be two weekly deliveries of pesticide-free, certified organic vegetables from Kunming's Haobao Organic Farm (pictured above) to the new Tianjundian Xiang shop (map here) where members can pick up their orders.

GreenKunming currently operates on a credit system, in which credit equaling 200 or 400 yuan can be purchased online via PayPal or at The Oasis Gift Shop. The credits can then be used to book delivery dates online. Initially deliveries from Haobao will consist of five kilograms of assorted seasonal vegetables for 40 yuan.

As the GreenKunming site and distribution system evolve, it will be looking for new partners to provide organic or green products for GreenKunming members. If you work for or know of potential partners for the GreenKunming network, please contact GreenKunming via its contact form.