Chinese consumers spend $70 billion a year on imported food,E-commerce has gradually become an important channel for consumers to buy imported food

The imported food products covered in the white paper include fruits and vegetables, meat, poultry and eggs, aquatic products, cold drinks and frozen products, milk and dairy products, cooked food and bakery products, non-staple food of cereals and oils, casual snacks, drinks and beverages, and baby food. Among the surveyed consumers, 57.5 percent of the total food consumption accounted for more than 10 percent of imported food, up nearly 5 percent year-on-year.

With the upgrading of the supply chain, the categories and sources of imported food are becoming more and more diverse, and more and more countries and regions’ delicacies are serving on the tables of Chinese residents. From 1997 to 2017, China increased its food imports from 108 countries and regions to 170, covering 73.9% of the world’s countries and regions.

With the continuous development of the domestic food e-commerce industry, the operation mode of the online platform represented by cofco has become increasingly mature, and the supply chain has been upgraded from source to circulation in an all-round way, helping more high-quality imported food reach the table of Chinese consumers.

China’s imports of agricultural products from Brazil, Asean, the European Union, Australia and Canada maintained rapid growth from January to May

The amount of US agricultural products imported by China in the first five months “halved” comparing with same period last year
China’s imports of agricultural products from Brazil, Asean, the European Union, Australia and Canada maintained rapid growth from January to May, while imports of agricultural products from the United States continued to decline rapidly, data from Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs showed Thursday.The amount of agricultural products imported from Brazil rose 20.7% to 76.19 billion yuan from 63.12 billion yuan in the same period last year.imports of US agricultural products fell 55.3% to 32.73 billion yuan from 73.22 billion yuan a year earlier. Soybean imports from January-May totaled 31.751 million tons, down 12.2% year on year, of which 4.309 million tons were imported from the United States from January to April, down 70.6% year on year.The import of pork, beef and mutton increased from January to May, totaling 1.405 million tons.

Trends of overseas toys in 2021

The main categories of overseas buyers include children’s educational toys, outdoor riding toys, remote control toys, building blocks toys, stress relief toys, IP tide toys, etc., covering the age range of 0-6 months, 3-6 years old, 10-18 years old, 20-40 years old, etc.

Remote control, building block toys

Remote control and building block toys have always been hot sellers. After years of deep cultivation in the market, a number of experienced players of remote control and building block toys have emerged among overseas buyers.

Educational toys for babies and children

Low-age toys have always been in demand in the market. Since the epidemic in 2020, social anxiety has accumulated and anxiety about the future has accelerated the market demand for educational toys.

Building block Toys (science and technology pieces/wooden blocks/Street View/architecture/large particle blocks/wooden table/magnetic chips, etc.)

China’s cross-border e-commerce exports reached 603.6 billion yuan in the first half, up 44.1%

Since July 1 last year, the General Administration of Customs has achieved remarkable results in the “cross-border e-commerce B2B Regulatory reform pilot project”. According to preliminary customs statistics, China’s cross-border e-commerce import and export maintained a good development trend in the first half of the year, with the total import and export volume reaching 886.7 billion yuan, up 28.6% year on year. Exports totaled 603.6 billion yuan, up 44.1% year on year. Imports reached 283.1 billion yuan, up 4.6% year on year.

Chinese yuan weakens to 6.4799 against USD Friday

BEIJING, Aug. 13 — The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan, weakened 45 pips to 6.4799 against the U.S. dollar Friday, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.

In China’s spot foreign exchange market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by 2 percent from the central parity rate each trading day.

The central parity rate of the yuan against the U.S. dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day.

Syria receives 150,000 doses of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines

July 29 — The Syrian Health Ministry on Thursday received a batch of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines provided by the Red Cross Society of China.

Health Minister Hasan al-Ghabash attended the reception ceremony at the Damascus International Airport alongside Chinese Ambassador to Syria Feng Biao, as the Chinese embassy has supervised the delivery of the vaccines to the Syrian government.

During the ceremony, al-Ghabash expressed the Syrian government’s gratitude to China for sending the vaccines, which he hailed as effective and successful.

“We thank the government of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese people for their important contributions in light of the spread of the COVID-19 virus in the world,” he said.

“This vaccine is one of the recognized and registered vaccines by the World Health Organization and it has proven its effectiveness and success in China and in other areas which have received this vaccine,” he said.

Feng said the new delivery reflects the friendship between the Chinese and Syrian people.

“Nowadays, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread around the world in tandem with the appearance of new variants of the virus, which makes it the most important duty for the world to exert efforts to counter the pandemic,” the Chinese ambassador said.

Feng called on all parties to abide by scientific principles in tracing the source of the virus and oppose politicizing this issue.

In April, Syria received a batch of Chinese vaccines as part of many medical donations offered by the Chinese government to Syria to deal with the pandemic.

Africa’s COVID-19 3rd wave at crossroads: WHO official

As the rate of new cases fell by less than two percent over the past week, driven by a sharp drop in South Africa, 21 countries are experiencing a resurgence, three more than last week, warned Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa.

“Let’s be under no illusions, Africa’s third wave is absolutely not over. The small step forward offers hope and inspiration but must not mask the big picture for Africa,” she noted.

Africa continues to lag behind in terms of the COVID-19 vaccination, Moeti said, explaining that only about 1.5 percent of the continent’s population are fully vaccinated so far.

“African countries must go all out and speed up their vaccine rollouts by 5 to 6 times if they are to get all these doses into arms and fully vaccinate the most vulnerable 10 percent of their people by the end of September,” she said.

“Vaccines are key to saving lives and blunting the pandemic, but we must remain focused on controlling the disease until vaccination coverage is increased,” Moeti said.