China Releases 2015 H1 Imported Food Safety and Trade Data

On 30 Jul 2015, AQSIQ released the “The H1 2015 Imported Food Safety Report.” In the past six months, 552 thousand batches of imported food originating from 179 countries were received by provincial CIQs, representing year-on-year growth in imports of 11.9% by batch and 21.2% by weight. Interestingly the total value of imports has fallen by 10.8% due to price cutting, increased competition and a change in Chinese tariff policies.   

The top ten exporters by value are:

• EU

• ASEAN

• USA

• New Zealand

• Brazil

• Australia

• Russia

• Canada

• Ukraine

• Korea

The top ten imported food categories by value are:

• Oils and fats

• Dairy

• Aquatic products

• Meat

• Grain

• Alcoholic products

• Sugar

• Beverages

• Other processed food

• Dried nuts

Due to stricter supervision of imported foods by Chinese authorities and the implementation of more advanced regulatory measures there were no major food issue during the first half of 2015. According to the data, 1225 batches of imported food from 57 countries and regions were subject to regulatory rectifications which represent a decrease of 12.3% in comparison to H1 2014 data. Top non-compliant food categories include beverages, pastry & biscuits, grain and grain based products.