The EU aims to increase food exports to China despite trade tensions

On a visit to China this week, EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said his focus will be on increasing agricultural exports to the world’s second-largest economy and overcoming rising trade tensions between China and the EU love food.

“In the food trade, there are no barriers to Chinese imports,” Wojciechowski said in an interview in Shanghai on Monday. “My intention is to avoid, as much as possible, agriculture paying the costs of the problems in other sectors, which can sometimes happen,” he added.

The commissioner’s visit, which runs until Friday, comes as China and Europe face a “slow-motion train wreck” as a rising tide of protectionism threatens to become a full-blown trade war, warned Jens Eskelund, president of the European Chamber in China last week. . Unlike sectors such as solar panels or new energy vehicles (NEVs), the European Union’s agri-food sector has an export surplus in its trade with China.

Even in contrast to other sectors, open trade in food remains a “very important instrument to guarantee food safety everywhere”. That is why Western sanctions against Russia after the invasion of Ukraine were not imposed on agri-food products, Wojciechowski said. Last year, EU exports to China amounted to 14.6 billion euros ($15.57 billion), down 8% compared to 2022, while imports from China to the EU fell 15% to 8.3 billion euros .

Wojciechowski said there is room for growth in EU exports to China in a range of agri-food sectors, from poultry to pork, beef and even dairy, a segment that is already relatively advanced in terms of penetration in China. “We can see the increase of middle class consumers looking for good, high quality food. This is an opportunity for European Food to increase our exports,” he said.

($1 = 0.9379 euros)

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