Dim Sums: Agricultural Markets in China

China's customs authorities reported rejecting 14 batches of rapeseed oil from Kazakhstan in December 2025 due to detection of genetically modified material in the shipments. The report said the rejected shipments totaling 811 metric tons had been purchased by Xiamen Agricultural Products Trading Company located on China's southeastern coast. The shipments were rejected by Chinese customs authorities in the Urumqi customs region that borders Kazakhstan.  According to news from Kazakhstan  this month, Chinese officials put 3 Kazakh plants on a blacklist, 2 had suspended operations, and 5 were on the brink of closure. One of the idled plants reportedly had Chinese ownership. A Kazakh industry official reported that the China market is vital to the industry's development strategy.  The Kazakh article suggests there are disputes over the detections of GMOs: "Chinese importers periodically detect GMs in rapeseed oil shipments and return the cargo, although Kazakh laborator...

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...

China's border inspectors have been discovering a lot more problems with imported pork and poultry. There were few rejections of either type of meat until 2024 when rejections of imported pork spiked during July and October. Rejections of poultry soared during 2025. Rejections of both pork and poultry peaked at their highest ever levels of 2,000 metric tons in June 2025.  Jan 2022-July 2025. Compiled from reports on China customs website . China had never rejected more than a couple of hundred metric tons of pork in a month until July 2024, when inspectors turned away 1,000 metric tons. Rejections of pork rebounded to nearly 900 metric tons in October and remained at a high level in the first 7 months of 2025. China's pork rejections peaked at record-high 2,000 metric tons monthly in June and July 2025.   Jan 2024-July 2025. Compiled from reports on China Customs website . The increase in imported pork problems just happened to begin in July 2024, the month after China an...

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...

China's ban on 5 U.S. agricultural exporters contrasts with its lenient approach to domestic product safety and to suppliers in favored countries. This highlights China's cynical use of plant and animal quarantine and food safety inspections as a tool to control the flow of imports and to "diversify" import sources.  On April 4 China's customs administration suspended 4 U.S. suppliers of sorghum and meat and bone meal and 2 suppliers of poultry products  (one company appears to be on both lists): Chinese customs said they detected levels of zearalenone--a mycotoxin produced by certain types of mold--in the sorghum supplier's shipments.  Chinese customs said they detected salmonella in shipments by 3 companies of meat and bone meal to be used in animal feed.  Chinese customs said they detected furazolidinone, a drug banned in China, in three batches of chicken products supplied by 2 U.S. poultry producers. A Customs administrator cited Chinese laws and regulat...

Rejections of imported meat by China's customs authority more than tripled in 2024. It is unclear whether problems in meat shipments suddenly increased last year or whether the spike in rejections reflects an effort to bring relief to struggling Chinese meat producers by rejecting imports.  A compilation of monthly reports of rejected food imports from the Chinese customs web site showed that 778 shipments of beef, pork, chicken, lamb, and deer meat were rejected at China's border last year. The spike in rejections was unusual: China's number of meat rejections had never even reached 300 in previous years (the customs administration took over inspection in a 2018 revamp of border authorities).  Source: Compilation of monthly reports of rejected food shipments posted on China Customs website. Rejections increased for each kind of meat, but beef and pork accounted for most of the increase in rejected shipments. China rejected 435 beef shipments, up from 60-to-80 rejections in...