On October 15th, the General Administration of Customs of China signed 15 sub product access documents with 10 countries including South Africa and Belarus. From stone fruits in South Africa to seafood in Türkiye, from kiwi fruit in Iran to dried cherry in Uzbekistan, more “far away” delicacies along the Silk Road become “close in front of us”.
On the same day, the 2025 “the Belt and Road” Customs Food Safety Cooperation Conference was held in Shanghai, which was learned by reporters from the conference.
In recent years, food trade has become a new hotspot of trade between China and the countries jointly building the “the Belt and Road”. According to customs statistics, in the first three quarters of this year, China’s import and export to countries jointly building the “the Belt and Road” reached 17.37 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.2% year on year, accounting for 51.7% of the total import and export value, and the proportion increased by 1.1 percentage points; Among them, the food trade volume reached 915.24 billion yuan, an increase of 2.5%.
Food safety is a cross-border livelihood issue and the cornerstone of trust in international agricultural food trade. Sun Meijun, Director of the General Administration of Customs, said that since the establishment of the “the Belt and Road” customs food safety cooperation mechanism in 2023, progress has been made in many aspects, such as the addition of 428000 registered enterprises importing agricultural and food products in China, the simplification of access requirements for 11 categories of low-risk products, such as bird’s nest products, processed aquatic products, frozen fruits, etc., making positive contributions to deepening exchanges and cooperation between relevant countries and expanding economic and trade exchanges.
By establishing a green channel for fresh and perishable foods, durian from Thailand can now be transported to Chinese supermarkets in 13 hours, and cold water salmon from China can reach the Indonesian market in 39 hours, “said Sun Meijun.
At present, the “the Belt and Road” cooperation is moving from the “big freehand brushwork” to the “fine brushwork” stage, and the landmark project and the “small and beautiful” project are advancing in a coordinated manner.
According to Zhao Zenglian, Deputy Director General of the General Administration of Customs, since the establishment of the mechanism in 2023, the General Administration of Customs has signed 197 cooperation documents on agricultural and food product access with relevant countries. “At this meeting, we have gained a series of new achievements: including the adoption of the Shanghai Declaration on Promoting Trade Facilitation and Sharing Food Safety, the online operation of the ‘Silk Road Food Safety’ information platform, the signing of the ‘the Belt and Road’ Customs Food Safety Cooperation Mechanism Charter by representatives of 11 countries, and the official accession to the mechanism. So far, 18 countries have joined the mechanism.”
It was reported that the conference, with the theme of “deepening international cooperation mechanisms and promoting trade security and facilitation”, was attended by more than 100 participants from more than 20 countries that jointly built the “the Belt and Road”, embassies and consulates in China, representatives of international organizations, and heads of relevant domestic departments.