Dim Sums: Agricultural Markets in China

China is causing consternation and puzzlement by detecting and rejecting genetically modified material in food shipments from trading partners from trading partners who claim that they don't grow GM crops.  Chinese inspectors have rejected 146 shipments for containing GM material in the first half of 2026, up from a trickle in earlier years. More interesting is that Chinese inspectors have found GMOs in shipments of rapeseed oil, rice, flour, and soybean foods  Compiled from China Administration of Customs. Earlier this year, this blog reported  that Chinese inspectors had reported 74 GMO-containing shipments of rapeseed oil from Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus--countries that banned GMO crop production. At least one Kazakh exporter protested that it had verified that there was no GMO material in exports destined for China.    Despite having suspended several Kazakh and 8 Russian rapeseed oil exporters, China rejected another 27 rapeseed oil shipmen...

Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus all ban production of genetically modified crops, yet Chinese customs inspectors have been rejecting shipments of vegetable oil from these countries due to detection of GMOs. China's detections of GMOs in imported food shipments have increased sharply this year. During the first 3 months of 2026, Chinese customs reported rejecting 88 shipments totaling 6,271 metric tons for detection of unauthorized GMOS. The rejection count was up from 38 shipments in all of 2025, and 10 in 2024. China reported 1-to-4 GMO rejections annually before 2024. Compilation of food import rejection reports from China customs administration website. Rapeseed oil comprised 74 of the 88 rejections this year. The rejected rapeseed oil came mainly from Kazakhstan (59 rejections) and Russia (13 rejections). Two other shipments of rejected rapeseed oil had been shipped from Belarus and Ukraine. Other GMO rejections announced by China so far this year included flour products from Ja...

A feed mill in China's Guangdong Province has been fined by authorities for using unapproved genetically modified corn as raw material. Could this be a signal that Chinese officials are ready to crack down on corn imports? The announcement was featured in news media as one of 10 "representative cases" of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs' campaign to "stabilize grain production, protect supply." Authorities say traces of imported GMO corn were found in the company's processing equipment in a sample inspection for GMOs. The feed company had not obtained a license to process agricultural GMOs. The batch of illegally processed corn totaled 31.02 metric tons. The corn had already been processed, but final products had not been sold, according to the description of the case. The company was fined 101,000 yuan (less than $14,000) and products were destroyed. Chinese agricultural authorities announce "representative cases" in GMO crackdow...

 "Non-GMO soybeans are our core competitive advantage"--so proclaimed the head of China's soybean industry association in a speech earlier this month.   The speech on " The development and future outlook for China's soybean industry " presented at the Dalian Commodity Exchange's China International Oils and Oilseeds Conference cited the Russia-Ukraine war, "international epidemics," and "China-U.S. relations" as factors creating crises in food, energy, and "data security." The speaker said these crises validate China's obsession with food security and the necessity of maintaining "oilseed security."  The speech was given by Yang Baolong, deputy Party secretary and general manager of Beidahuang Nongken Group, the commercial arm of the network of giant State Farms in Heilongjiang Province. The speech featured plenty of national jingoism and nods to Heilongjiang and Beidahuang as key players in China's soybean...

A Chinese company is seeking Argentine approval for a genetically modified soybean strain that would be grown in South America and exported back to China. This appears to be a gambit to break down Chinese consumers' resistance to commercializing GM crops in China. By demonstrating that foreign scientists think GM seeds are safe, Chinese government and industry leaders hope consumers will give up their resistance to allowing GM food crops to be grown in China. According to Science and Technology Daily , Da Bei Nong (also known as DBN) Group, a feed, seed and crop protection company based in Beijing, has spent three years seeking Argentine approval to commercialize a GMO soybean variety that is resistant to both glyphosate and glufinosate--two common herbicides. DBN is working with Argentine company Bioceres to gain the approval and eventually develop marketing channels for the seed in Argentina. This has also been r eported by an international organization ISAAA . The Science an...

Illegal planting and sale of genetically modified corn seeds is a persisting problem in China. The best way to deal with the problem is to legalize GMOs, Chinese scientists say. An article in Science and Technology Daily this week notes that China's top corn seed company was recently implicated in the illegal sale of 50 kg. of genetically modified corn seed, an incident the company attributes to "internal management problems." The reporter observes that such incidents of illegal sale and planting of GMO corn seeds have appeared regularly in recent years. Industry experts told Science and Technology Daily that the main reason for the persistence of illegal GMO corn-planting is that farmers "love" the seeds. Farmers growing conventional corn have suffered serious losses from pests, and scientists say mold from pest-damaged corn contaminates other corn when the ears are mixed together, resulting in further losses from mycotoxins. China has varieties of corn g...

With spring planting approaching, Chinese provinces are cracking down on illegal trading, testing, and planting of genetically modified seeds. A March notice issued by Heilongjiang authorities warned farmers not to buy illegal GMO seeds sold as "pest-resistant or weed-resistant," offered free testing for seeds they already have, and urged farmers to report any merchants selling illegal GMO seeds. On March 29, Heilongjiang Province officials promised to go to fields with rapid-testing kits to check for genetically modified corn and soybeans. On April 9, Shandong, another of the biggest agricultural provinces, announced its campaign to crack down on organizations doing research on GMO crops, trials, production, marketing, processing, and imports of genetically modified material. The same day, Inner Mongolia officials said they will focus on illegal sale and falsely labeled GMO seeds for corn, rapeseed, soybeans, sunflowers, and potatoes. China allows research orga...

Chinese authorities are thinking about consolidating GMO testing labs and turning them into genuine third-party testing organizations, according to a report in China Business Journal yesterday . One of the motivations for the consolidation is last year's exposure of a GMO testing lab's falsification of testing records and employee qualifications to pass a 3-year audit. There are currently 42 testing centers for GMO plants and animals on the Ministry of Agriculture's list. However, the qualifications of several have already lapsed, and a dozen more are up for renewal in 2017 and 2018. No preparations have been made to audit several testing centers whose qualifications will soon be up for renewal. One researcher told China Business Journal that there are plans to weed out weak labs, and he speculated that the number of testing centers could be whittled down to as few as 10. There are also plans to make the GMO testing centers independent third party organizations. ...

A Chinese Province has banned planting genetically modified crops for five years. The ban has a complicated back story which includes another cynical manipulation of food safety hysteria to protect a province's soybean industry. According to Xinhua News Agency , the ban was adopted this month as a revision of Heilongjiang's 4-year-old food safety regulations . The new regulation passed by the standing committee of the province's Peoples Congress stipulates that genetically modified food crops--specifically rice, corn, and soybeans--may not be planted in regions administered by the province starting May 1, 2017. It also bans the illegal production and marketing of genetically modified grain seeds, as well as illegal production, processing, and sale of food products containing GMOs. The regulation bans illegal imports or smuggling of GMOs. The regulation demands that genetically modified agricultural products and foods containing genetically modi...

"The safety of transgenic foods is not determined by an auntie next door; the determination is made by professional organizations through experimental trials," intoned the deputy head of Hainan Province's agricultural department on September 9, 2016. The official's remarks were made at the latest in a series of publicity events put on by Chinese agricultural officials to assure the public of the safety of transgenic agricultural products. The events are intended to ease consumer concerns about approval and wider dissemination of more transgenic crops in coming years. The assurances of scientific rigor were undermined ten days later when a former Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences graduate student posted allegations that an elite testing center for transgenic crops falsified years of records to pass an audit to renew the center's accreditation (Chinese version here ; Chinglish version here ; Wall Street Journal version ). A lab for testing feed and a...

Chinese agricultural officials said they destroyed 1100 mu (181 acres) of genetically modified corn fields during 2015. The announcement by the Ministry of Agriculture was intended to assure consumers that officials are strictly regulating production of genetically modified crops. The announcement follows release of a 2016-2020 plan for science and technology that promises R&D and commercialization of corn and other genetically modified crops . The destroyed transgenic corn fields were discovered in three provinces that are centers for seed breeding and propagation: Xinjiang, Gansu, and Hainan. Presumably, the corn was being grown to be sold as seed. No genetically modified corn seeds have been approved for commercial production in China. Certain varieties of genetically modified corn produced in other countries have been approved by Chinese officials for import (but not for planting in China). Attention was drawn to the widespread illegal planting of genetically modified corn...

China's State Council endorsed R&D and commercialization of genetically modified crops as one of the priorities in its 13th Five-year Plan on Science and Technology. The document emphasized dual objectives of putting China on the forefront of scientific research while maintaining the strictest approval process for genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The GMO endorsement was a small part of a lengthy  Five-year Plan for Science and Technology  (2016-2020) which projects a broad vision of transforming China's economy from one that cranks out products using imported technology to an economy that runs on innovation. The plan emphasizes dual priorities of using science and technology to maintain national security and to move up to a higher rung in global value chains. Research and development on genetically modified crops is the eighth of 13 priority projects identified in the plan. Other priorities include space exploration, super computing, and new-generation broadband wi...

Chinese authorities have waffled between funding research on genetically modified crops while stoking fears of imported GMOs. As they dragged their heels on approving transgenic crops for commercial use, there is mounting evidence that Chinese farmers are growing them illegally.  The Chinese communist party's "document no. 1" released last month called for "strengthening research on transgenic agricultural technology and its supervision, carefully spreading results on the basis of safety assurances." Is it a coincidence that a week later it is announced that the Chinese state-owned company ChemChina plans to pay $43 billion for the Swiss company Syngenta whose products include transgenic crops? This deal appears to be in line with the "strengthening research" part. The admonitions about "supervision" and "careful" dissemination of transgenic crops may be about a decade too late.  A detailed Greenpeace survey of the corn ...

China is learning that not all soybeans are equal and you have to pay a premium if you want to consume and produce "non-GMO" products. China's shortage of non-GMO soybeans was one of the main topics of discussion at a meeting on the soybean market held by the Ministry of Agriculture during December 2015 in Heilongjiang Province. The area planted in non-GMO soybeans in China has been shrinking year by year while the demand for non-GMO cooking oil, food products, and protein supplements has grown. Meanwhile, the price of imported soybeans--which are predominantly genetically-modified--has been falling. According to data from the National Grain and Oils Information Center, the price gap between Chinese soybeans for food processing and imported soybeans grew to 1000 yuan per metric ton in mid-2015. The gap narrowed after domestic beans came on the market in the fall, but there is still a roughly 25-percent gap in price. This is a big change from past years when prices wer...

China may revise its regulations on labeling genetically-modified food , according to remarks by a Ministry of Agriculture official earlier this month. This appears to be part of the groundwork for a more pro-GMO approach in coming years. The remarks were made at the fourth in a series of meetings held by the Ministry November 7, 2015 to educate news media about genetically modified organisms. The meeting gathered agricultural scientists who commented on the importance of keeping up with this technology and dispelled myths about genetically modified foods that have spread among the Chinese public. The meeting was reported by Beijing Youth News , a media organ of the communist party youth league. It appears to be a thrust to reshape public opinion as China pursues a more pro-GMO course for agriculture. He Yibing, the head of the Ministry's scientific education office, said China's nearly 15-year-old regulations for labeling genetically modified foods are being considered for...

Genetically-modified soybeans are illegally grown in parts of China's major soybean-growing region, according to a report from China Business Journal , a news media outlet. On September 9, t he provincial agriculture commission announced an investigation of illegal soybean cultivation and says the culprits will be "severely dealt with." A food processing company that buys soybeans in Heilongjiang Province told China Business Journal that it discovered GMO soybeans during 2013 and 2014 when it tested samples it had purchased in the province's Suihua prefecture. The company claims that GMO soybeans are widely grown in counties of that region. No one knows where the seeds came from. One Heilongjiang field manager reports that seed from a trade show was surreptitiously sold. According to China Business Journal , Monsanto says they have never sold GMO seed in China. Other reports say that stealing and propagating seeds is commonplace in China. Chinese authorities hav...