On August 16, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a regular press conference that the Chinese government attaches importance to strengthening China-Africa agricultural cooperation, actively promotes the import of agricultural products from Africa, and will support and facilitate more high-quality african agricultural food products to enter the Chinese market, bringing more tangible benefits to the People of China and Africa.
Since the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, 25 agricultural products from 14 African countries, including Kenya, South Africa, Benin and Egypt, have completed access to China. According to data released by China's General Administration of Customs, China imported $60.6 billion worth of goods from Africa, an increase of 19.1% over the same period in 2021. At the same time, exports to the African continent increased by 14.7 percent to $76.8 billion. China is the second largest destination country for African agricultural exports, with the average annual growth rate of African agricultural exports to China reaching 11.4% in recent years, and The value of African agricultural exports to China in 2021 increased by 18.2% year-on-year.
The first batch of avocados entering Africa has aroused heated discussion
On the morning of July 27, the first batch of Kenyan fresh avocados (avocados) arrived in Shanghai. This is the first batch of African fresh avocados exported from Africa to China after the General Administration of Customs issued an announcement on June 1 this year to allow Kenyan fresh avocados that meet quarantine requirements to be exported to China.
On the same day, the 72 kg avocado arrived at Shanghai Pudong International Airport on flight QR8960. In order to maintain freshness and reduce the rate of cargo damage, Shanghai Pudong Airport Customs took the initiative to dock with importers, establish a special liaison guarantee mechanism, understand the entry plan arrangements in advance, configure fruit quarantine experts to "tailor", and quickly release the batch of fruits as much as possible under the premise of ensuring strict supervision and control.
In order to complete the inspection operation, Pudong Airport Customs specially placed the supervision operation in front of the airport airside cargo station, which is dedicated to the special field, which is conducive to concentrating on customs quarantine such as biosecurity and food safety, and avoids the cargo damage that may be caused by the barge in the yard area, which significantly improves the efficiency of customs clearance.
In April 2019, Kenya and China signed a bilateral protocol during the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing. In June 2019, the General Administration of Customs issued an announcement allowing the import of frozen avocados from Kenya that meet the quarantine requirements, making Kenya the first country in Africa to export avocados to China, and the list of fruits exported to China by countries along the "Belt and Road" was updated again. Three years later, Kenyan fresh avocados were allowed to enter China.
Employees sort and pack avocados into boxes at the Sangripu plant in limuru, Kenya, on Aug. 2. The factory held the first ceremony of the export of fresh avocados to China on the same day.
It is reported that this batch of avocados was introduced as a sample, and will be imported on a large scale after the domestic importer confirms the quality of the goods. Kenya is the second largest producer of avocados in Africa, and avocados are the fruit with the largest export volume. Kenya's neighboring countries are also eager to try, and South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe are also actively preparing to export avocados to China.
Africa's agricultural "gold mines" have great potential
Coffee from Ethiopia, peanuts from Nigeria, cashews from Tanzania, cocoa from Côte d'Ivoire... Africa has abundant agricultural resources, and these characteristic agricultural products are among the highest in the world in terms of production, and play an extremely important role in the export trade of various countries.
In 2021, the "Vision 2035 for China-Africa Cooperation" adopted at the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the "Nine Projects" launched and implemented have pointed out the way forward and injected strong impetus into the development of China-Africa relations and pragmatic cooperation in agriculture and other fields. In addition to trade cooperation, China has further deepened agricultural cooperation and accelerated the construction of a three-dimensional and diversified pattern of China-Africa agricultural cooperation by carrying out agricultural technology training, building agricultural technology demonstration centers in Africa, and strengthening investment in non-agricultural areas.
The trade promotion project in the "Nine Projects" clearly states that China will establish a "green channel" for the export of African agricultural products to China, accelerate the promotion of quarantine access procedures, further expand the scope of zero-tariff treatment for the least developed countries that have established diplomatic relations with China, and will provide trade financing to support African exports.
To this end, the General Administration of Customs of China has actively implemented and formulated practical and feasible access facilitation measures:
First, product access is given priority. Give priority to applications for agricultural product access submitted by African countries, and immediately start risk analysis after receiving relevant technical information to accelerate the promotion of quarantine access;
The second is to speed up the process of risk assessment. For some agricultural products from the same country with similar processing technology, or the same kind of agricultural products from different countries, under the premise that the risk is controllable, the risk assessment shall be implemented in combination to accelerate the access process;
The third is to facilitate the registration of enterprises. Facilitate the registration of enterprises in African countries that have been admitted to agricultural products, and use flexible methods such as video inspection or document review to accelerate assessment and registration.
According to Wang Wenbin at the press conference, the Chinese authorities will also hold a Forum on China-Africa Sanitary and Phytosanitary Cooperation to support and facilitate more African high-quality agricultural and food products to enter the Chinese market.
China-Africa agricultural food trade will surely prosper
According to the statistics of youdding special research institute, since the beginning of this year, Rwandan stevia, South African fresh pear, Egyptian fresh pomegranate, Zimbabwe fresh citrus, Kenyan fresh avocado and wild aquatic products have successively obtained export licenses to China. African countries are also full of expectations for expanding trade in agricultural products exported to China.
China is South Africa's largest trading partner, and South Africa is also China's largest trading partner in Africa. In recent years, South Africa's exports of agricultural products such as oranges, nuts, red wine and beef to China have grown steadily. China's door to South Africa's high-quality agricultural products is opening wider and wider. In August last year and February this year, China and South Africa signed protocols on phytosanitary requirements for the export of citrus and fresh pears to China. South Africa's ambassador to China, Xie Shengwen, said that South Africa hopes to continuously deepen economic and trade cooperation with China on agricultural products, expand the export of high-quality agricultural products such as wine, fruits, nuts, meat, fishery products and aloe vera to China, and promote the export of avocados, blueberries and honey to China. According to statistics, there are currently 485 food production enterprises in South Africa that have obtained registration qualifications in China.
Peanuts are Senegal's most important cash crop, thanks to the efficient and pragmatic cooperation between China and Serbia in the field of peanuts to improve varieties, increase yields and train technologies, Senegal has become one of the main sources of peanut imports from China. Moussa Balde, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Equipment of Senegal, said that Senegal is promoting the implementation of the revitalization road supported by agricultural modernization, and will continue to improve the competitiveness of agricultural products and expand exports to China. According to statistics, there are currently 262 food production enterprises in Senegal that have obtained registration qualifications in China.
Ethiopia's coffee, flowers, fruits, vegetables and livestock products have the potential to meet the needs of the Chinese market, and Sophia Casa, Minister of State of the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture, called on Ethiopia and China to strengthen the docking of development strategies and further explore opportunities for cooperation in agricultural products. According to statistics, there are currently 307 food production enterprises in Ethiopia that have obtained registration qualifications in China.
Youding Special Research Institute believes that the scale of China's agricultural imports from Africa is growing for all to see, and there is still a lot of room for improvement from the perspective of access categories and total imports.
For African countries, it is imperative to actively communicate with the relevant departments of the Chinese side and include their own advantageous and high-quality agricultural products in the access list of china, and for the majority of businesses, it is indispensable to seize business opportunities from existing access products and contribute to China-Africa trade.
If the partners of Youdingte Research Institute encounter any problems related to food safety, enterprise registration, product compliance and inspection and testing in imported fruits and other agricultural food products, they can get in touch with us.
Sources: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China News Network, China Business News Network, South China Morning Post, Douban