On the afternoon of November 7, the 2019 China Import Food Summit was held in Shanghai. Assistant Minister of Commerce Li Chenggang attended the forum and delivered a speech.

Li Chenggang pointed out that the cumulative turnover with intentions of the food and agricultural products exhibition area of the first China International Import Expo reached US$12.68 billion, accounting for more than 20% of the total intended turnover, which promoted the strong growth of China's food and agricultural products. In 2018, China's food imports totaled US$73.57 billion, 18.2 times as much as that 20 years ago. It is believed that through the 2nd China International Import Expo, the food and agricultural products will achieve more fruitful results.

Li Chenggang said that with the increasing scale of imported food, the imported food has gained more and more recognition among the Chinese consumers.. The feedback from the industry and major wholesale markets shows that aquatic products and seafood, meat and dairy products are most popular at the retail and wholesale ends. In 2018, the import value of the above three types of products exceeded US$10 billion for the first time.

Participants generally agreed that the success of this summit has strengthened the trade exchange and cooperation in global agricultural products and food and will play a positive role in the future development of China's imported food industry.

The summit was hosted by the China Chamber of Commerce of I/E of Foodstuffs, Native Produce and Animal By-products. Attending were more than 500 representatives from the Ministry of Commerce, the General Administration of Customs, the Shanghai CPPCC, the relevant government departments at home and abroad, and the Chinese and foreign organizations and enterprises of food industry.