The General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) on Wednesday released a new edition of revised rules for the registration and administration of overseas producers of food exports to China, in an effort to enhance supervision over food imports safety and facilitate trade in food imports.
The new edition of revised Rules for Administration over the Registration of Overseas Food Production Enterprises for Import by the Customs of the People's Republic of China will go into force on June 1, 2026.
The revision aims to strengthen source management and implement whole-process supervision.
A significant aspect of this revision is the introduction of several innovative, trade-facilitating provisions designed to streamline the process of registration of overseas food exports enterprises.
For the first time, the set of rules has introduced a classification management system, a provision for automatic extension of registration validity upon expiration, a "list-style" registration mechanism and automatic review functionalities.
The current set of rules, which came into effect in Jan 2022, has seen the registration of over 96,000 food enterprises from 178 other countries and regions.
The imported foods range from South African roasted coffee beans, Uzbek dried nuts, Norwegian salmon to New Zealand frozen fruits and has been expanding continuously.
The system has supported steady growth in China's total value of imported food which increased from 1.25 trillion yuan (181.13 billion U.S. dollars) in 2021 to 1.32 trillion yuan (191.27 billion U.S. dollars) in 2025.
China upgrades rules for registration of imported food producers
