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International Food Exhibition | How Free Trade Zones Empower China's Agricultural Globalization

2025.05.19

In March 2025, Hainan Free Trade Port welcomed special "green ambassadors" - premium durian seedlings from Southeast Asia that smoothly entered the quarantine cultivation area of Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City through fast-track customs clearance. This innovative practice vividly demonstrates China's new model of agricultural opening-up: Free Trade Zones (FTZs) are driving traditional agriculture up the value chain through policy breakthroughs and resource coordination. So what innovative practices have FTZs adopted in promoting agricultural internationalization? What breakthroughs have been achieved? And what development potential remains untapped? The International Food Exhibition will offer more information about import and export.

 

 

Since the establishment of Shanghai FTZ in 2013, China has launched 21 FTZs and Hainan Free Trade Port in seven batches, forming a nationwide reform and opening-up system connecting land and sea. The third batch of FTZs established in 2017 first incorporated agricultural trade as a key development area. Currently, Yangling in Shaanxi, Hainan, and Zhoushan in Zhejiang have become important platforms for agricultural opening-up and innovation.  

 

The International Food Exhibition notes that as of March 2024, FTZs have promoted 349 institutional innovation achievements nationwide, including 8 agriculture-related innovations primarily in trade facilitation. These include 6 quarantine supervision innovations such as optimized grain import inspection procedures and a no-inspection list for low-risk plants and animals, as well as breakthrough policies like streamlined wildlife import/export approvals and relaxed foreign investment restrictions in breeding.

 

Enhancing Agricultural Trade Efficiency  

Hainan Free Trade Port's "zero-tariff" policy covering 39 categories of agricultural products has significantly boosted imports. Sichuan FTZ's innovative "two-stage supervision model for chilled aquatic products" has reduced customs clearance time by 3-5 days, a model now implemented nationwide.  

 

Optimizing Agricultural Investment Environment  

From 2017 to 2021, the negative list for foreign investment in FTZs was streamlined from 122 to 27 restrictions. Currently, the agricultural sector only maintains foreign investment limits on specific seed industries, with openness exceeding the national average.  

 

Improving Agricultural Service Systems  

FTZs have deepened reforms to streamline administration, delegate power, and improve services while optimizing financial services to effectively address financing challenges for agricultural enterprises. Leveraging its advantages as a national breeding base, Hainan is establishing a global tropical agriculture center and germplasm resource transfer station.  

 

The deep integration of FTZs and agricultural opening-up essentially drives agricultural modernization through institutional innovation. The 2025 Government Work Report explicitly calls for deepening FTZ reforms, presenting new opportunities for agricultural opening-up.  

 

Promoting Whole-Industry-Chain Opening  

Future efforts should focus on removing institutional barriers to high-quality agricultural development, including: aligning with high-standard international trade rules, improving agricultural export service systems, and promoting agricultural service trade development.  

 

Accelerating Innovation Achievement Promotion  

Currently, agriculture-related innovation achievements account for a relatively small proportion of those promoted. It is recommended to prioritize trade facilitation measures with strong operability and proven effectiveness, adapting them to local conditions.  

 

Strengthening Policy Synergies  

Enhanced coordination should be promoted among FTZs, agricultural opening-up pilot zones, and free trade agreements to form policy synergy. Collaborative innovation across these three types of open platforms will help explore more targeted agricultural opening-up pathways.  

 

If you would like to learn more about the food industry, please visit the SIAL China website for more information.

 

Source: Farmers’ Daily

 

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