Rising living standards fueling a healthy appetite for foreign foods
Print Edition
Chinese consumers鈥 demand for imported food has been growing steadily as the standard of living in China improves, according to a statement from the General Administration of Customs.
China鈥檚 total food imports amounted to US$58.28 billion last year, up 25 percent year on year, while the annual average growth rate over the previous five years was 5.7 percent.
The European Union remained China鈥檚 largest supplier of food, followed by the United States, New Zealand, Indonesia and Canada. Meat, oil, dairy and seafood were among the most popular imports.
Chen Weinian, purchasing director at Shanghai鈥檚 City Shop, said that foreign food used to be consumed mainly by expatriates but is now being increasing favored by locals.
A separate report from the National Development and Reform Commission showed that the country鈥檚 Engel鈥檚 coefficient dropped to 29.3 percent in 2017, below the benchmark of 30 percent for the first time set by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations and falling into the range for a wealthy life.
Engel鈥檚 law is an indicator measuring the share of income spent on food and reflects a nation鈥檚 standard of living. The lower the number, the higher the living standard.
Although the proportion of income spent on food fell, Chinese people have become increasingly picky about their food and want more diversity and exotic tastes.
Over the past few years, China has been increasing its fruit imports from Latin America. The country鈥檚 avocado imports from Mexico, Chile, and Peru in 2017 alone reached 33,000 tons.
China announced a series of measures to reduce tariffs and expand imports at the 2018 Boao Forum For Asia Annual Conference, including a 55.9 percent average decline of the most favored nation rates for various sectors, including food and beverages.
China has identified 22 cities, including Beijing, Nanjing, and Wuhan, as sites for comprehensive cross-border e-commerce pilot zones. The growth of imports and exports in these pilot zones has been more than 100 percent in the past two years.
Platforms for cross-border e-commerce are also thriving. As of May, over 400 third-party platforms and 20,000 transnational e-commerce enterprises had been newly established in the first 13 pilot zones.
Cainiao, a cross-border e-commerce network of Alibaba, has built 110 global warehouses and 74 cross-border logistic lines and offers services in 224 countries and regions.
As a crucial part of food importation, Chinese Customs have been striving to accelerate transportation and strengthen monitoring.
鈥淲e have opened 鈥榞reen channels鈥 for imported food and simplified the import procedures for food products to limit the process from arrival to release to just one hour,鈥 said Zhang Xin, vice chief of Zhengzhou Customs in Henan.
The average time for an imported product to go through customs has been almost haled to 6.69 hours.
Food safety is a priority for China鈥檚 booming imported food sector. As a watchdog of food safety, the General Administration of Customs successfully prevented several major imported food safety problems in 2017.
The administration further bolstered the regulation of imported food and facilitated the cooperation with its international counterparts to ensure food safety, according to its report released in July.
In 2017, a total of 54,000 tons of substandard imported food products from 94 countries and regions were seized by China鈥檚 customs.
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