Chinese officials crowded their voice:

Chinese officials used the first China International Import Fair to send a fairly clear signal to the world: the Chinese table welcomes more global high-quality dairy, meat and other ingredients.

According to official data, China imported 2.557 million tons and 9.3 billion US dollars of dairy products from 60 countries and regions in the world in 2017, up 13.3% and 36.1% respectively from 2016, which was the fastest growing food imports in that year. In the 10 years from 2008 to 2017, China's dairy imports grew at an annual compound rate of 21.5%.

Li Chenggang, Assistant Minister of Commerce of China, said at a sub-forum of the Expo that China is one of the most dynamic dairy markets in the world. With the increase of income and the optimization of consumption structure, China's dairy consumption growth in the future "has great potential".

Chinese people are also increasingly fond of imported meat. According to official data, China's meat imports reached 3.88 million tons in 2017, with an import value of nearly 9.5 billion US dollars.

"China's demand for imported food is very high," said Bi Kexin, director of the Import and Export Food Safety Bureau of the General Administration of Customs. China now buys a large number of meat, dairy products, fruits and nuts from more than 180 countries and regions around the world. "This trend will continue."

According to official data, the amount of imported food in China has exceeded 60 billion US dollars in 2017, an increase of more than 10% year on year. In Tianmao, Jingdong and other well-known e-commerce platforms in China, fresh imports are also widely welcomed.

"China sincerely welcomes more diversified and better quality imported food to enter the Chinese market." Bickxin said.

The most beneficiary countries are expected to be the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, France, Thailand, Canada, Brazil, Vietnam and Malaysia, which are the top ten source countries of imported food from China. China's imported food industry report released on the same day showed that these countries accounted for 68% of China's imported food share.

But the welcome of imported food is not unconditional. According to Mr. Bicker, the premise of expanding food imports is to ensure safety. Customs will provide more customs clearance facilities to importing enterprises willing to perform their security responsibilities, and severe penalties will be imposed if they fail to perform their duties. (end)