Dim Sums: Agricultural Markets in China

A pair of Chinese scholars were caught allegedly trying to smuggle a dangerous fungus into the United States. The case has been portrayed as an agroterrorism plot, but a careful look suggests this was more likely a case of ambitious scholars utilizing an American lab on the down-low to conduct China-funded crop protection research. This is not meant to excuse the smuggling of a dangerous pathogen, but jumping to a false conclusion could unnecessarily heighten U.S.-China tensions. The case was  announced June 3, 2025 by the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Eastern District of Michigan  and widely reported in U.S. news media as an act of possible agro-terrorism. Mr. Zunyong Liu (刘尊勇) was caught at the Detroit airport trying to smuggle a fungus called Fusarium graminearum (禾谷镰孢菌) into the United States. Liu was refused entry and sent back to China. He was working with Ms. Yunqing Jian (简云清), a Chinese citizen conducting research at the University of Michigan who had advised Liu on ...

China is waging war on meat and seafood smuggling as authorities pile on barriers to legal imports that include strict approvals, reams of documentation, and onerous covid testing, disinfection and tracking. Chinese state-controlled media have reported a series of smuggler interceptions this year from just about every coastal province. Several articles reveal there is a national crackdown on smuggling underway. Coast guard authorities board a ship in Shandong Province suspected of smuggling in March 2022. Source: Xinhua . Official media reported that the coast guard had intercepted 75 ships smuggling over 8000 metric tons of frozen products from January 1 to March 15 this year.  Local media in Jiangmen City in Guangdong Province reported that the coast guard intercepted two boats loaded with 70 metric tons of beef and tripe packed in white bags on May 25 and 27. The products were valued at 7 million yuan (over $1 million). In April, Guangdong's anti-smuggling office reported 398...

Chinese customs authorities have been announcing seizures of smuggled meat products. This crackdown began in 2019 and seems to reflect a surge in smuggling prompted by a spike in Chinese meat prices last year that increased the trade's profitability. The inspection bureau of the Huangpu port in Guangzhou says it has arrested 36 suspects and seized 4582 metric tons of frozen beef, chicken feet, and pork stomachs in a six-month crackdown. Customs and police jointly mobilized 458 officers to conduct 62 operations in Guangzhou, Dongguan, Shantou, Shenzhen and Guilin over the past six months. They arrested 36 suspects, bringing down this "huge gang" "in one fell swoop." Officials say a suspect received shipments of beef in Hong Kong, then transferred them to ports in Guangdong and stored them in warehouses. Customs inspectors say they saw large amounts of meat in boxes with foreign labels stored in a warehouse with fraudulent documents and inspection certificates,...

Meat smugglers continue to evade Chinese authorities, but shipments are smaller and more fragmented after several years of elevated enforcement efforts, customs officials say. Customs authorities publicized several seizures of smuggled meat in January, ahead of the spring festival holiday: On January 22, authorities in Nanning intercepted a caravan of 7 small vans and a large truck packed with 8,000 kg of beef, beef offal, and chicken feet with foreign-language labels. Three drivers were arrested.  On January 27, police seized a truck near a tollbooth in Poshan City, Yunnan Province that was loaded with 30,000 kg of pork labeled in foreign language and lacking inspection and customs documentation.  On January 30, Hong Kong authorities seized a fishing boat carrying 200,000 kg of smuggled frozen meat.  Vans intercepted in Guangxi Province reportedly carried 1000 kg each of smuggled meat. Also in January, customs officials reported to State media that their...

Chinese customs officials say they are cracking down on "rampant" pork smuggling to prevent further spread of African swine fever and downward pressure on domestic pork prices. On August 24, Chinese coast guard officials apprehended a ship carrying over 300 metric tons of chicken feet, frozen pork, feet, ears, and tongues. Officials claim to have seized of 15,000 metric tons of meat in 6 meat smuggling cases from April 25 to May 25.  Comic shows a stream of ants carrying loads of "smuggled zombie meat" through a tunnel into "China" The article notes that meat smuggling is cyclical: it rises when Chinese pork prices are higher than foreign prices and falls when Chinese prices fall. The article estimates that smuggling of frozen pork and offal totals 500,000 metric tons in a normal year, but rises to over 1 million metric tons when prices are high. The article estimates that 100,000 live hogs are smuggled into the country annually. The article claims t...

Trade in smuggled meat keeps some restaurant operators in business, according to an August 10 report by China's Ban Yue Tan ( Comment ) online magazine. China's small restaurant owners and processors struggling to remain profitable may be the most vulnerable to China's tariffs on imports from the United States. As tariffs rise higher, the incentive to smuggle is increased proportionately and China's customs authorities say they are cracking down (again). The Comment reporter said most of the 40 merchants he interviewed in two wholesale meat markets in Chongqing--a major hub of commerce in southwest China--sold both legal and smuggled frozen meat products. Smuggled products included frozen pork, beef and poultry. Vendors asked the Comment reporter, "Do you want [meat] with a certificate or without? It's much cheaper without a certificate." The product without certificates was smuggled meat that lacked import clearances and inspection documents. Th...

Smuggling of agricultural products over China's porous borders has become rampant as Chinese prices are now far above prices in neighboring countries. Rice is one of the most commonly smuggled commodities since China has a long border with major rice producing countries. Customs officials say they caught 57 gangs smuggling 218,500 metric tons of rice and other grains valued at over 1 billion yuan during the first ten months of 2016. A Chinese reporter went to Nanning, Kunming, and Wuhan to investigate how rice is smuggled into the country. At a remote part of the border with Vietnam as many as 1000 small boats crossed the 70-80-meter wide Red River loaded with rice. Rice also comes in over small roads through the mountains. In a crackdown there last year authorities claim to have seized 2400 metric tons of smuggled rice in a single day. Authorities have built a number of concrete barriers--including a 100-meter reinforced concrete wall--to stop the smuggling. However, payof...

Despite a series of anti-smuggling campaigns, China's smuggled rice imports reached 2 million metric tons (mmt) during 2015, according to estimates by a Chinese grain industry newspaper. China's Grain and Oils News deduced the smuggled volume by comparing export statistics from Vietnam and Burma which far exceed China's officially-reported imports of rice from those countries. The article doesn't explain why exporters selling to smugglers would report the sales to customs officials. There seem to be several typographical errors in the article, but the estimate of 2 mmt seems to be in line with reality. Adding the estimated 2 mmt of smuggled rice to official imports of 3.35 mmt recorded by customs statistics brings China's total imports to 5.35 mmt. Subtracting China's rice exports of 280,000 metric tons still leaves the net import volume--smuggled and legal--at over 5 million metric tons. Grain and Oils News asserts that the imports have a severe impact...

After Chinese customs authorities began their crackdown on smuggling of agricultural products last year, smugglers have shifted their routes to remote mountain areas where they are harder to catch. The trade is apparently so profitable that smugglers are using excavating equipment to build new roads. According to Grain and Oils News , the "green wind" campaign to crack down on smuggling of rice and other agricultural products into China has led to arrest of ten smuggling rings since the campaign was launched last year. While the program has "effectively curbed smuggling," the situation is still "grim." Smugglers are still in business and have increased the scale and professionalism of their operations. The director of the Guangxi Province Grain Industry Association explained that farmers in neighboring countries like Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia can grow up to three crops of rice annually at much lower cost than Chinese producers. The price of ric...

According to news from Guangzhou , customs authorities there have broken up a beef smuggling ring that is suspected of illegally bringing 1351 loads of meat valued at 560 million yuan since 2014. The gang allegedly bought frozen beef from the United States, Brazil, India, and Pakistan, and smuggled it into China by either evading customs, falsely reporting, or concealing the meat. The beef was cut up, packaged and then sold in Chongqing, Nanjing and Shanghai.The investigation involved 230 officers in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Foshan. They arrested 28 people as of April 7 and seized 24 metric tons of meat. The beef case is part of the China customs "green wind" crackdown on agricultural products smuggling that began in 2014. Anti-smuggling efforts were also highlighted in the 2015 "Number one document" issued by the communist party central committee. Officials claim to have cracked 13,316 cases valued at nearly 45 billion yuan. The number of cases is reported to ...

During 2014, Chinese customs authorities have been engaged in a "green wind" crackdown on smuggling of agricultural products. Authorities claim successes but new publicity includes warnings that the smuggling is a threat to food security, suggesting that they remain concerned. Chinese customs officials nab a truckload of smuggled rice In April this year, this blog reported on the "green wind" campaign against smuggling of agricultural products. In July, customs authorities launched a new publicity campaign that mostly warns about the seriousness of rice-smuggling along the border with Southeast Asian countries, linking it to food security and "pressure" on domestic industry. According to Legal Daily , the aggressive crackdown on smuggling in Guangxi Autonomous Region has pushed the smuggling trade to Yunnan Province. The Kunming customs authorities say they recently broke up two smuggling rings that have illegally brought in 60,000 metric tons of ...

At the beginning of 2014, China's Customs authority launched a "Green Wind" campaign to crack down on smuggling of agricultural products. The campaign covers ports all over the country and products as diverse as rice, wheat, soybeans, peanuts, edible oils, sugar, cotton, starch, and meats. The campaign was described as part of a broader effort to curb the "momentum of large-scale smuggling" over the last several years. According to the article, the campaign has several motivations: to prevent loss of customs and tax revenue, prevent food sanitation and safety problems, and to maintain national food security. The concern is that smuggled products with low prices will depress Chinese prices and harm Chinese producers. The smuggling crackdown is described as a food security "firewall." A coordinated effort by authorities in three ports--Shandong Province's Qingdao and Rizhao and in Guangxi--intercepted 130,000 metric tons of smuggled peanuts and ...