China Agri News Week 26, 2020
This is the news overview of week 26 from the agricultural team of the Netherlands Embassy in Beijing.
Ministry Promulgates New Feed Production Regulations to Improve Food Safety
On June 16, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) issued a new notice on the usage of self-produced animal feed. The notice states that farmers that produce their own animal feed are prohibited to distribute this to other farmers. And also their food production facilities and equipment are not to be used, whether it is for commercial purpose or not, by other parties.
The notice is the government’s latest attempt to maintain the order of feed production and to ensure the quality and safety of farmed products. In 2019, total feed consumption was about 350 million tons, of which 60% was commercial produced feed, and 40% was self-made feed by farmers.
The new provision will take effect on August 1st, 2020 (Source, Chinese only: China Dairy Industry Association).
China’s Dairy Giant Yili Launched yet Another Mega Investment
Chinese dairy giant Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group announced a new investment of 2 billion yuan in the construction of a dairy farm and deep-processing line in Neiqui Country, Hebei province. The company estimates that the new farm can stock 100 thousand cows, producing a daily average of 1,5 thousand tons of milk with a total output value of 5 billion yuan annually.
In May earlier this year, Yili invested no less than 30 billion yuan to build 20 large-scale demonstration ranches and an intelligent factory for high-end organic dairy products in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
In 2019, the company generated a total operating revenue of 90.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.4% (Source, Chinese only: Nai Niu Wei Kan).
China Implements New COVID-19 Food Import Measures
Due to the recent outbreak of COVID-19 linked to Beijing’s biggest wholesale market Xinfadi, and other and high-profile outbreaks in global food facilities, China is now implementing new requirements during the importation of food.
According to an article on one of China's leading seafood media platforms seafood guide, many food importers in China received a food safety commitment declaration from local General Administrative of Customs China (GACC) authorities. The document that they are required to sign, forces the importer to comply with several new import criteria. It is expected that exporters in foreign countries will also be required to sign the declaration.
Based on the content of this document, China mainly raised a new requirement that, in addition to the regulations in China, food facilities shall further comply with the guidelines jointly released by WHO and FAO (COVID-19 and food safety: guidance for food businesses) to ensure the food is not contaminated. Furthermore, imported fresh foods will also receive mandatory coronavirus testing at ports (Source: Chemlinked).