China’s food imports rise substantially
July 31, 2018 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
Chinese consumers’ demand for imported food has been growing steadily as the standard of living in China improves, according to the General Administration of Customs. China’s total food 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 imports.
Chen Weinian, Purchasing Director at Shanghai’s City Shop, said that foreign food used to be consumed mainly by expatriates but is now being increasing favored by locals. A separate report from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) showed that the country’s Engel’s coefficient dropped to 29.3% in 2017, below the benchmark of 30% for the first time and falling into the range of countries with a wealthy lifestyle. Engel’s coefficient is measuring the share of income spent on food and reflects a nation’s standard of living. The lower the number, the higher the living standard. Although the proportion of income spent on food fell, Chinese people have become increasingly picky about their food and want more diversity and exotic tastes.
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 33,000 tons. China has identified 22 cities, including Beijing, Nanjing, and Wuhan, as sites for comprehensive cross-border e-commerce pilot zones. The growth of imports and exports in these pilot zones has been more than 100% in the past two years.
As a crucial part of food importation, Chinese Customs have been striving to accelerate transportation and strengthen monitoring. “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. The average time for an imported product to go through customs has been almost halved to 6.69 hours. At the same time food safety measures have been strengthened. In 2017, a total of 54,000 tons of substandard imported food products from 94 countries and regions were seized by China’s customs, the Shanghai Daily reports.
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