January 5, 2023

 

Latin America is China's biggest import market for beef

The largest beef import market for China is Latin America, with the volume of imports rising quickly, meeting a growing demand from Chinese consumers, Xinhua News reported.

 

The first half of 2022 saw a 26% increase in China's beef imports from Uruguay, according to Uruguay's commerce ministry. Since 2015, China has received more than half of Uruguay's annual beef exports.

 

The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor's opening is credited for the rapid expansion of Latin American beef exports to China.

 

The trade and logistics corridor launched in 2017 was jointly constructed by western Chinese provinces and ASEAN nations. It is one of the major initiatives included in China's Belt and Road Initiative.

 

The trade corridor, with Chongqing as its operational hub and other western provinces as important nodes, speeds up the flow of goods into and out of western China using a variety of transportation means, including waterways, railroads, and highways.

 

Along with other goods from Belt and Road partner nations, the presence of foreign food products such as beef from Latin America in China's western cities has increased as a result of the trade corridor.

 

Zhang Xinhao, manager of Chongqing Jinshangxu International Trade, one of the biggest importers of Latin American beef in China, said the biggest growth in consumer demand for Latin American beef is in China's western regions.

 

Some of the company's beef products are shipped to China's western regions via the new trade route, which is supported by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Zhang said the corridor has cut the logistics time for Latin American beef to reach western China by more than 20 days, saving each container about CNY 15,000 (~US$2,154; CNY 1 = US$0.15).

 

Since the beginning of 2022, the expansion of the corridor has been accelerated, providing more effective trade routes for China's inland cities and provinces like Chongqing, Gansu, and Hunan, despite obstacles caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and economic headwinds.

 

Data from the Coordination Center for Logistics and Operation of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor showed that the number of new logistics routes launched in 2022 was 78, the highest in the past five years.

 

The volume of goods transported through Chongqing on the corridor increased by 29% from a year earlier to 105,000 TEUs, and the value increased by 46% to CNY 19.1 billion (~US$2.7 billion) in the first three quarters of 2022.

 

China's General Administration of Customs said during the same time period, China's trade with nations along the Belt and Road reached CNY 10.04 trillion (~US$1.4 trillion), an increase of 20.7 percent from the previous year. Imports increased in value by 20% to CNY 4.34 trillion (~US$631 billion).

 

Zhang said his business will continue to expand the market in western China and supply customers with more premium beef from Latin America. He said that the ongoing improvement of domestic epidemic prevention and control measures has given him more confidence about the future.

 

-      Xinhua News