China's customs inspectors discovered genetically modified material in shipments of Russia's purportedly non-GMO rapeseed oil this year. Russian regulators scrambled to impose new requirements on their producers to satisfy Chinese inspectors, but the volume of trade shrank precipitously. Chinese markets were impacted as declining imports of Russian rapeseed oil led to a large price premium for non-GMO rapeseed oil in China.
The rejections were reported mainly by border crossings in Western China such as Chengdu, Chongqing, Urumqi, and Manzhouli, but many rejections of Russian rapeseed oil were also reported by Shanghai and Xiamen customs authorities on China's east coast, far from the Russian border.
UkrAgroConsult reported that China suspended 23 Russian suppliers and placed 35 on a watch list to prevent further rejections. UkrAgroConsult said the Chinese rejections spurred Russian regulators to conduct laboratory tests to support documents certifying that rapeseed oil shipments are free of GMOs. Chinese customs lists reported smaller numbers of rejections during August and September. The September list reported rejections of 7 shipments totaling 933 metric tons from three Russian exporters.
In February of 2026 Chinese customs inspectors rejected rapeseed oil shipments from 3 Russian suppliers totaling 510 metric tons after they detected genetically modified material in the oil. Chinese officials raised concerns with Russian counterparts, but rejections continued rising in months that followed, peaking at 3600 metric tons in April and 4452 metric tons in May. The surge of rejections followed a tightening of inspections this year prompted by rejections of Kazakh and Belarus rapeseed oil last year.
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| Compiled from China Customs Administration lists. |
The rejections were reported mainly by border crossings in Western China such as Chengdu, Chongqing, Urumqi, and Manzhouli, but many rejections of Russian rapeseed oil were also reported by Shanghai and Xiamen customs authorities on China's east coast, far from the Russian border.
UkrAgroConsult reported that China suspended 23 Russian suppliers and placed 35 on a watch list to prevent further rejections. UkrAgroConsult said the Chinese rejections spurred Russian regulators to conduct laboratory tests to support documents certifying that rapeseed oil shipments are free of GMOs. Chinese customs lists reported smaller numbers of rejections during August and September. The September list reported rejections of 7 shipments totaling 933 metric tons from three Russian exporters.
An official in Novosobirsk--the Russian region hit hardest by China's crackdown--told UkrAgroConsult that the volume and price of rapeseed oil sales to China both declined. Chinese import data show that Russia remains the main supplier of China's rapeseed oil imports, but the volume during July-September fell to less than half the volume in January-April.
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| Compiled from China Customs Administration. |
In Southwestern China supplies of non-GMO cooking oil are tight and prices are rising due to the clamp-down on Russian imports, according to an October report by a fact-finding mission by Chinese futures market regulators. A team from China's Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange visited cooking oil dealers and processors in Sichuan and Chongqing to evaluate market impacts of a change in delivery terms for the Exchange's rapeseed oil futures contract. This region has a culinary tradition of using local rapeseed oil in hot pot and other local cuisine, and it's a hot spot for non-GMO cooking oil demand.
The team attributed rising non-GMO cooking oil prices in China to the drop in imports of rapeseed oil this year. The team linked the decline in imports to the rejections of Russian vegetable oil, and Russia's tightened inspections of rapeseed oil bound for export markets. The team said Chinese buyers have become more cautious as they face heightened risks of rejected shipments, lengthy rectifications by suppliers, and port delays, as well as costs due to traceability requirements. The investigators reported that domestic supplies of non-GMO rapeseed are limited, and imports from other sources such as Belarus and UAE cannot bridge the supply gap during the upcoming Winter peak consumption season.
On the other hand, Chinese cooking oil processors are receiving greater volumes of imported genetically modified rapeseed/canola from Canada and Australia in 2026. (China slashed its antidumping duty on Canadian canola last year, but it retains a 100% antidumping duty on Canadian canola oil imports.)
The investigators reported a widening price spread between non-GMO and GMO cooking oil in China of RMB 1,000 per metric ton in the Chengdu region as of October. They observed that large companies are gaining increased pricing power as the increased risks deter small and medium-sized cooking oil processors from importing rapeseed oil. They speculated that some companies may shift their product mix toward conventional rapeseed oil or soybean oil.
While not mentioned in the report, there is also stronger incentive to adulterate "non-GMO" oil with genetically modified oils. (see this blog's report on adulterated walnut oil.)
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