African food landing on Chinese dinner tables

BEIJING -- In a bustling supermarket in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, a woman surnamed Li was choosing snacks for her son and daughter.

She picked up two boxes of dried deep-sea anchovies. "I would like to have my children eat healthily, so every time I buy food for them, I read the ingredients and nutrient list carefully," she told Xinhua. "In these deep-sea anchovies the protein content is very high, and they taste good."

A box of the dried anchovies, with 10 packages inside, sells for 25 yuan (about 3.5 U.S. dollars). Li said she buys this product regularly.

The anchovies, from the eastern coastal area of Kenya, can be seen in many supermarkets in Changsha.

"Sales of our dried deep-sea anchovies have topped 1 billion yuan a year, for which we need to import tens of thousands of tonnes of the fish," said Zhou Jinsong, chairman of Jinzai Food Group Co., Ltd.

In 2018, the company set up a factory in Kenya, where locally purchased fish were processed before delivering to China.

The popularity of dried deep-sea anchovies exemplifies the thriving economic and trade exchanges between China and Africa. Pineapples from Benin, citrus from South Africa, dried chili pepper from Rwanda, coffee from Ethiopia, sesame from Tanzania and peanuts from Senegal have all landed on the dinner tables of ordinary Chinese.

The latest arrival was mutton from Madagascar, the shipment of which was cleared at Changsha Customs, marking China's first mutton imports from Africa and an important breakthrough in the China-Africa meat trade. The 900 kg of mutton was shipped by air, with the entire delivery period taking approximately 36 hours.

China has remained Africa's largest trading partner for 15 consecutive years, recent customs data showed. China-Africa trade reached a record high of 282.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2023 -- up 1.5 percent year on year, showing strong resilience. China's 2023 imports of African nuts, vegetables, flowers and fruits had increased by 130 percent, 32 percent, 14 percent and 7 percent, respectively, compared to the previous year.

In the first seven months of 2024, Hunan imported African agricultural products valued at approximately 240 million yuan, up 10.6 percent year on year.

Such trade has benefited from China's unceasing efforts to establish "green channels" to promote fast market access for African fresh imports, such as soybeans, coffee beans and avocados.

In the city of Kunshan, east China's Jiangsu Province, several coffee shops offer coffee beans imported from Africa. Shop menus there carry details of the origins and flavors of coffee varieties such as Yirgacheffe, Geisha and Hambella, which are all renowned coffee types originating in Ethiopia.

The Kunshan Yiguo International Trade Co., Ltd. is a local importer of African coffee.

"African coffee beans have a unique fruit acid and floral taste, which has won the hearts of Chinese coffee lovers," said Zhang Lipeng, a warehouse director of the company.

He revealed that over the last three years, the company has imported about 800 tonnes of coffee beans from African countries, including Ethiopia and Uganda.

China's fresh-food chain Hema Fresh is currently putting South African citrus, grapefruit and apples on shelves in its retail stores across the country.

Wang Ruishu, Hema's import fruit purchasing manager, said citrus produced in South Africa has a sour and sweet taste, while it is also easy to peel and eat. This produce is sold swiftly in Beijing and Shanghai, where sales grew by 44 percent compared with the same period of 2023.

Wang said the harvesting season of these African fruits is earlier than in China, which means it can fill China's market gap concerning apples and citrus.

African people also benefit from trade between the two sides.

In an interview with Xinhua, Mohamed Harun from Kenya said that the Jinzai Food Group Co., Ltd. which imports anchovies from his country, has "made a huge difference" in the lives of local people. "They have given us opportunities to work for five days a week, which has really increased my income and increased my knowledge and skills," he said.

"This company is really a blessing to our village," Harun said, noting that it has "created job opportunities for young and middle-aged people around our village." "I would welcome Chinese companies like Jinzai to our country," Harun added.