China’s food imports grow steadily
August 28, 2018 Category Foreign trade, Weekly
Chinese consumers’ demand for imported food has been growing steadily as the standard of living in China improves, according to a statement from the General Administration of Customs. China’s tofood imports amounted to USD58.28 billion last year, up 25% year-on-year, while the annual average growth rate over the previous five years was 5.7%. The European Union remained China’s largest supplier of food, followed by the United States, New Zealand, Indonesia and Canada. Meat, oil, dairy and seafood were among the most popular food imports in China. Chen Weinian, Purchasing Director at Shanghai’s City Shop, said that foreign food used to be consumed mainly by foreign expatriates and is now being favored by many more Chinese.
A separate report from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) showed that the country’s Engel’s coefficient, which measures food expenditure as a proportion of total household spending, dropped to 29.3% in 2017, below the benchmark of 30% set by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and falling into the range for a wealthy life. Although the proportion of income spent on food fell, Chinese people have become increasingly picky about their food consumption and want diversity and exotic tastes. For instance, over the past few years, China has been increasing its fruit imports from Latin America. The country’s avocado imports from Mexico, Chile and Peru in 2017 alone reached 30,000 metric tons. China announced a series of measures to reduce tariffs and expand imports at the 2018 Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference.
As a crucial part of food imports, Chinese customs have been striving to accelerate transportation and strengthen surveillance to ensure the quality and freshness of imported food. “We have opened ‘green channels’ for imported food and simplified the import procedures for food products to limit the process from arrival to release to just one hour,” said Zhang Xin, Vice Director of Zhengzhou Customs in Henan province. Zhang added that in the first half of the year, they reduced the average time for an imported product to go through customs to 6.69 hours, down 45.8% year-on-year.
The Customs authority is also emphasizing safety in food imports. In 2017, a total of 49,000 tons of substandard imported food products from 94 countries and regions were seized by China’s customs, the China Daily reports.
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