Dim Sums: Agricultural Markets in China

Chinese inspectors upped their rejections of beef, chicken feet, and pork from the United States, Europe and Brazil during 2025. Meat was rejected for containing hormones not permitted in China, failing sensory inspections, and lack of documentation or plant registration. The spike in rejections coincided with China's imposition of tariffs over the last 2 years designed to reverse losses of Chinese meat producers or to punish trading partners. China's rejections of imported food during 2025 increased 55% from the previous year. The volume of shipments rejected increased 150%. These were the largest values since the customs administration took over inspections at the border from the now-defunct AQSIQ in 2018.  Compiled from lists posted on China Customs web site. China rejected food shipments from about 75 countries -- from Denmark and France to Pakistan and Belarus. The top 3 trading partners with the most rejections -- the United States, European Union, and Japan -- are not kn...

A country with a bad food safety record aspires to lead a new approach to setting food safety practices in international trade. This is part of China's plan to leverage its Belt & Road Initiative in order to boost its influence in setting international rules, standards, and inspection practices. So far, it's off to a slow start. On October 15, China's customs administration held a meeting  of its 2-year-old "Import & Export Food Safety Cooperation Mechanism for the Countries of the Belt and Road Initiative" in Shanghai with participants from food agencies and embassies of 21 Belt and Road countries.  Director General of the Customs Administration Sun Meijun stated that China's customs administration is willing to work with food safety authorities of all countries to collaborate on food safety regulation and promote safer and more efficient trade in food and agricultural products. At the meeting member countries affirmed the "Shanghai Declaration o...

China continued rejecting relatively large numbers of U.S. food shipments in the first 4 months of 2025, according to Chinese customs reports. A rising trend in Chinese rejections of U.S. food shipments has been underway since 2020 for no particular reason. The European Union and United States had the largest number of food shipments rejected by China's customs inspectors during the first 4 months of 2025. China's customs administration reported rejecting 207 shipments of food from the European Union and 154 shipments of U.S. food during January to April 2025. These two trade partners were way ahead of others in rejections. Japan had the 3rd-largest number of rejections with 81, followed by Brazil (68), Malaysia (66), Vietnam (54), and Taiwan (50). In all, China rejected 1,180 shipments from 50 countries and regions with a volume of 19,187 metric tons.  Chart shows trade partners that had 50 or more rejections. Compiled from China customs administration reports. Most rejections...

More than 80 percent of Chinese consumers are interested in purchasing imported goods, according to a " 2024 white paper on Chinese cross-border import consumption trends " released in June by a large Chinese e-commerce company and a multinational marketing company. The paper was a promotion of the Chinese company's cross-border e-commerce platforms as a means for foreign products to enter the Chinese market.  The paper said 56 percent of Chinese consumers recognize the value of international brands and products of foreign origin as signs of quality. The "white paper" listed beauty and skin care, personal care, nutrition and health, maternal and child care, and food and beverages as the main categories of imported goods purchased by consumers during the past year. Consumers pay attention to the ingredients, taste, health and convenience when purchasing food and beverages. Imports have a significant role in China's agricultural and food economy even during a ...

" There's no need to worry about the increase in imported agricultural products ," Chinese State media said earlier this month. The  Economic Daily  article assured readers that "the expansion of agricultural imports is not a bad thing in itself." It needs to be analyzed, authors said.  This endorsement of food imports by the Communist Party-run Economic Daily appears to be an Orwellian reversal of food security propaganda. It was posted on dozens of Chinese web sites, a sure sign that it is official Chinese communist party propaganda, not the product of a rogue commentator.  Economic Daily  authors said that "some people" have baseless worries that "China will be controlled by others if it imports food" and that "foreign low-priced agricultural products will impact the domestic industry." To prove their point, Economic Daily authors pointed out that "these situations have never occurred in over 20 years since entering the WT...