On August 4, Changsha Customs issued an inspection and quarantine certificate for 200 kg of dry pepper from Rwanda, Africa. It is reported that this is China’s first import of African dry pepper products. The goods were declared for import by Hunan Guokai International Development Co., Ltd. to Changsha Customs in the way of national customs clearance integration, and were successfully cleared at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport.
China has the largest pepper consumer group in the world, and the import demand of dry pepper is large. According to customs statistics, in the first half of this year, China imported 119900 tons of dry pepper, a year-on-year increase of 45.55%. The climate in Rwanda is suitable for pepper planting, which can produce 2-3 seasons a year, and the cost advantage is obvious.
This batch of dry pepper imports is the first African non resource products promoted by Hunan after the first China Africa economic and Trade Expo in 2019. At the Expo, relevant enterprises in Hunan and Rwandan enterprises reached an intention to purchase dried pepper, and Rwanda immediately applied to China for pepper export to China. Under the guidance of the General Administration of customs, Changsha Customs, together with other customs directly under it, actively coordinated and promoted the access process of dry pepper in Rwanda, carried out pest risk analysis, and built a tracking research platform for food and agricultural products in African countries, including Rwanda.
After a lot of preparatory work, on March 11, 2021, the governments of China and Rwanda officially signed the bilateral protocol on the export of dried pepper to China. On July 8, the General Administration of Customs issued an announcement allowing the import of Rwanda’s dried pepper meeting the inspection and quarantine requirements. Rwanda became the first country in which African dried pepper products were allowed to enter the Chinese market.
In order to ensure the smooth import of the first batch of African dry peppers, Changsha Customs established a special working group to communicate and coordinate matters related to product access, registration of overseas production enterprises and product import; Explain the dry pepper import process, product quality and safety control, inspection and quarantine requirements to the enterprise in advance, and guide the enterprise to do a good job in key links such as product packaging identification and import declaration; Review the certificates of origin, plant quarantine certificates and other documents of goods in advance, and guide enterprises to correctly apply preferential tariff rates; Strengthen the guarantee of technical capacity, and pre evaluate the test items such as pesticide residues and additives of imported dry pepper; Actively coordinate the port customs to open up a “green channel” to achieve rapid customs clearance.
Yu Jian, chairman of Hunan Guokai International Development Co., Ltd., the importer, introduced that according to the contract, Rwandan suppliers will export 50000 tons of dry pepper to Hunan within 5 years, which can be settled in RMB. After the first batch of successful imports, the company will start a large number of imports. It plans to enter from Shanghai port by sea and go up the Yangtze River to Yueyang Chenglingji port. In the early stage, the wholesalers of dried pepper in Changsha Gaoqiao market and Wuhan will be the main sales objects, and in the later stage, it will be expanded to the whole country. While importing dry pepper, the company will also export pepper planting and processing equipment such as breeding machine, planter, transplanter and dryer to Rwanda to help Rwanda improve the planting scale and processing level of pepper, promote the development of local agricultural modernization, further improve the industrial chain and enhance added value.
According to the opinions on implementing the eight actions of China Africa cooperation and building a new height of China Africa local economic and Trade Cooperation issued by Hunan in 2020, as an important part of the exploration and construction of the pilot area of China Africa deep economic and trade cooperation, Hunan Province will focus on building the first batch of distribution and trading centers for African non resource products such as dry pepper, coffee, flowers, cashew nuts, rubber and wood.
Source: China News Network
Post time: Aug-10-2021