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.
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| 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 Japan and India, and soybean food products from Taiwan.
The bump in rapeseed oil rejections is consistent with reporting by UkrAgroConsult in February that Chinese customs officials have tightened inspections of imported rapeseed oil this year after detecting genetically modified material in Kazakh and Russian shipments. Chinese buyers had reportedly scaled back purchases of Russian rapeseed oil due to uncertainties about customs inspections.
Two months ago, this blog reported on the surge of rejected rapeseed oil from Kazakhstan last year due to GMO detections. Chinese officials had put 3 Kazakh companies on a blacklist, 2 had suspended operations, and 5 were reportedly on the brink of bankruptcy. During January-March 2026 Chinese customs lists showed that 59 rapeseed oil shipments from 4 Kazakh companies had been rejected for contamination with genetically modified material. Forty-four of the Kazakh rejections occurred in January, 12 in February, and only 3 in March.
Now, in 2026, problems with Russian rapeseed oil have emerged. In 2025, two shipments of Russian rapeseed oil were rejected for GMOs, but this year 13 rejections of rapeseed oil from Russia have been reported. According to Chinese customs lists, 10 different Russian companies were listed as having rapeseed oil rejected by China in 2026. This week a Russian official announced that China had banned imports of rapeseed oil from 8 Russian companies due to GMO detections.
GMO products can be imported to China, but only after extensive testing and registration with Chinese authorities. Since Kazakhstan, Russia, and Belarus ban production of GMO crops, they have not registered any GMO products for export to China. Most of the rapeseed oil products China rejected were described as "non-GMO" rapeseed oil.
In 2016, Russia banned GMO crops as a strategic move to bolster its exports of farm products after joining the WTO. Kazakhstan and Belarus, as members of the Eurasian Economic Union (a trading bloc of former Soviet countries), have been under pressure to follow Russia's lead in banning GMOs. China pursued a similar strategy of banning GMOs in domestic production to gain a competitive advantage while tightly regulating imported GMO soybeans, corn and rapeseed (canola) when it joined the WTO in 2001. Twenty-five years later, China is allowing a cautious expansion of domestic GM corn and soybean production.
Kazakh counterparts had disputed China's rejections, claiming that their testing did not reveal any GM material in the oil China rejected. At least one of the Kazakh exporters was owned by a Chinese company.
The Russian official announcing the Chinese rejections this week did not dispute the Chinese rejections. She said the issue has been investigated, rectifications are being monitored at export facilities, and Russia will submit documentation to Chinese counterparts to resume exports.
According to Chinese customs data, Russia is the top supplier of China's rapeseed oil imports this year, with imports near $500 million during January-March. Imports from Kazakhstan totaled only $8.2 million. No Canadian rapeseed (canola) oil imports were reported in the first 3 months of this year due to antidumping duties imposed a year ago, but those duties were scaled back as of March 1, 2026.
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| Chinese customs administration data. |
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| China customs administration data. |
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