CHINA – Authorities in China have open probe into subsidies of dairy products imported from the European Union.
The country’s commerce ministry said it will investigate 20 subsidy schemes created by the 27-member bloc as well as individual member states such as Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Ireland and Romania. The
The ministry has launched the probe based on a complaint from the Dairy Association of China submitted on July 29.
The ministry will also focus on the EU’s support of various types of cheeses and some milk and cream for export to China.
China said it “firmly opposed to and highly concerned” about the findings and vowed to take all necessary measures to protect Chinese firms.
The EU exported 1.7 billion euros (US$1.84 billion) in dairy products to China in 2023, down from 2 billion in 2022, according to data from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, which cited Eurostat.
Data from The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) also show that in the first half of 2024, imports of total dairy products in China were at their lowest since 2018.
This has been primarily driven by increased self-sufficiency and a sluggish economy. China’s total import volume of dairy products stood at 1.19M tonnes, a decline of 14.1% year-on-year. This decline is the continuation of a trend noticed since 2022.
According to Rabobank, overall Chinese dairy imports are likely to fall 8% in 2024.
It should be recalled that China already launched an anti-dumping probe into imports of EU pork in June.
The world’s biggest pork consumer opened the investigation after the EU imposed provisional duties of up to 37.6% on Chinese-made electric vehicles.
Market Analysts explained that the measures could badly impact Europe because a large portion of the bloc’s pork shipments to China are pig ears, noses, feet and offal that are only rarely consumed by Europeans.
The investigation was announced to focus on pork intended for human consumption, such as fresh, cold and frozen whole cuts, as well as pig intestines, bladders and stomachs.
China imported $6 billion worth of pork, including offal, in 2023 and more than half of that came from the EU, according to Chinese customs data. Spain is the biggest EU pork supplier to China, followed by the Netherlands, Denmark and France.
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