Farmers may benefit as China eyes EU speciality foods

Opportunities in the Chinese market for food producers could be opening up as the country looks set to formally recognise 100 EU products with geographical indication status.

The list of food and drink products come from 21 EU countries, including country farmhouse cheddar and Scotch whisky from the UK.

See also: How to get your farm products into China

The lion’s share of the specialities will be from Italy (parma ham, gorgonzola, and mozzarella), France (cognac and armagnac), Spain and Portugal.

To raise awareness of what’s on offer, the office of the EU’s agricultural director general will showcase products in Beijing and promote European produce as being authentic, high quality, safe, and full of tradition and heritage.

China’s GDP has been slowing down but still grew 7.4% in 2014 and has averaged 9.08% annually since 1989, according to economic analyst Trading Economics.

In 2013 the Chinese spent US$768bn (£464bn) on food, about five times more than the UK, according to market intelligence firm Euromonitor.

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