Hangzhou vegetable exports to Japan defy Chinese slump

Tag: Hangzhou vegetable

At the beginning of this year, “Japan’s poisonous dumpling issue” severely impacted China’s food exports and particularly hit China’s agriculture product exports.

In a research note, the general Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People’s Republic of China announced that two batches of dumplings involved in the issue found to have no traces of methylamine phosphorus residue after a rigorous inspection. But according to the result of Japan’s Bingku County Police’s survey, China’s dumping packages had suspicious eyelets and suspected tampering in order to inject agrochemical substances during shipping. As a result of the suspicion caused, many Chinese vegetable exports suspended and agricultural export shrunk significantly. Worse, large numbers of China’s food exporters and vegetable processing enterprises closed down.

Separately, agriculture information in Tootoo.com demonstrates that between Jan. and May this year, Hangzhou Entry-exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau examined 853 batches (22,000 tons) of processing vegetables exported to Japan, valued 121,000,000 Yuan, with 28.6%, 96.5% and 85.4% increases separately from last year, all successfully passed Japan’s customs inspection. Meanwhile, as Chinese suppliers sharply reduce at export market, Hangzhou vegetable export prices saw a notable rise.

After the “poisonous dumpling” affair, many provinces and areas in China stopped exporting agricultural by-products to Japan. Between Jan. and Apr. this year, Jinhua city saw exports of steam-fixed green tea to Japan, down 70％ compared to last year. Many Shandong agriculture exporters are still under production suspension and half-production at present. Different from other cities, Hangzhou exporters seized the opportunity of meeting serious vegetable supply shortages in the Japanese domestic market, effectively raising prices and extending export volume. After a careful probe, some market researchers from Tootoo.com found that Hangzhou exporters not only make great efforts on production to guarantee outstanding vegetable quality but also invest huge capital on agrochemical residue instrumentation to enhance product credibility. These are the main reasons for Hangzhou vegetable exporters’ success in Japan.

Most importantly, under the guidance of government sectors, Hangzhou 136 vegetable planted-bases (137,000 Chinese acres totally), implemented a new product inspection and quarantine record system. Based on this system, vegetable products exported to Japan – even if a small bag of fresh bamboo shoots in a supermarket – can be tracked to the farmland the raw material comes from.