Hunan Daily, March 15th - Recently, the first-of-its-kind initiative in China, the "Pre-assessment System for African Food Products Entering China," launched by Changsha Customs, has been filed with the General Administration of Customs and will be implemented in the Hunan Free Trade Zone.

This measure, relying on national-level platforms such as the Pilot Zone for In-depth China-Africa Economic and Trade Cooperation, targets food products from African countries that enterprises in the free trade zone intend to import but have not yet obtained access to the Chinese market. It conducts risk assessments in advance and, based on the results, proposes suggestions to the General Administration of Customs for simplifying the access assessment procedures, further facilitating the "green channel" for African agricultural and food products to enter China.

According to the Asia Food Exhibition, this initiative will develop differentiated assessment plans in line with the characteristics of African countries' food safety management systems. Meanwhile, it will establish a database of African countries' food safety information, a pre-assessment technology repository, and a risk assessment data repository, providing technical support for the access assessment of African agricultural and food products entering China.

Changsha Customs stated that in the future, it will actively serve the import needs of enterprises in the Hunan Free Trade Zone and promote the development of Hunan's industrial chains for importing non-resource-based products from Africa, such as coffee, nuts, and meat.

In recent years, high-quality African agricultural and food products have been entering Hunan at an accelerated pace. Under the guidance of the General Administration of Customs, Changsha Customs has successively participated in and completed 46 tasks related to the access assessment of African agricultural and food products. In 2024, Kenya's dried sea cucumbers, Madagascar's mutton, and Uganda's dried wild tilapia swim bladders were imported into Hunan for the first time in the country. Hunan also completed the first re-export trade of African flowers in China.

If you would like to learn more about the food industry, please visit the SIAL China website for more information.

Source: Hunan Daily

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