China is a large importer and exporter of foodstuffs，with the amount of each growing steadily in recentyears. Statistics released by the State Council in thisAugust show that the import and export volume in 2006 totaledUS$40.448 billion-worth (excluding wheat， corn and soybean，same below)， up 21.45% year on year. (See Figure 1)

Safety of export food guaranteed

In 2006， China exported 24.173 million tons of food， worthUS$ 26.659 billion， up 13.29% and 16.0% year on year， respec-tively. The top ten varieties in terms of export value were aquat-ic products， processed aquatic products， vegetables， cannedfood， juices and drinks， processed grain products， seasonings，poultry products， alcoholic beverages， and livestock meat andchopped entrails.

Foodstuffs of the Mainland China have been exportedto more than 200 countries and regions， of which the top tenin terms of trade volume are Japan， the U.S.， the ROK， HongKong， Russia， Germany， Malaysia， Holland， Indonesia and theUK. (See Figure 2)

For many years， over 99% of China's exported foodstuffshave been up to standard.

In 2006 and the first half of 2007， China exported to the U.S.some 94，000 batches and 55，000 batches of foodstuffs， respec-tively， and 752 batches and 477 batches of each were found bythe U.S. to be substandard， making the acceptance rate 99.2%and 99.1%， respectively.

In the case of the EU， the figures were 91，000 batches and62，000 batches， with 91 batches and 135 batches found by theEU to be substandard， making the acceptance rate 99.9% and99.8%， respectively.

On July 20， 2007， the Ministry of Health， Labor and Wel-fare of Japan， the largest importer of Chinese food， releasedan examination report on food imported from China in 2006，which showed that Japan conducted more sample surveys onChinese food (15.7%) than on food from anywhere else， but Chi-nese food had the highest acceptance rate (99.42%)， followed bythat imported from the EU (99.38%) and the U.S. (98.69%).

The Mainland of China is a major supplier of food for theHong Kong Special Administrative Region. Two large foodsample surveys conducted by Hong Kong's Food and Environ-mental Hygiene Department in the first half of 2007 showed thatthe acceptance rate stood at 99.2% and 99.6%， respectively.

Supervision of exported food

Following the principle of \"prevention first， supervision atthe source， and control throughout the process\"， the Chinesegovernment has set up and improved an export-food safety man-agement framework composed of \"one pattern and ten systems\".

\"One pattern\" refers to the managerial pattern for the pro-duction of export food - \"enterprise + base + standardization\".This pattern conforms to China's reality and the actual situationin the field of export food， and thus is an important guaranteefor the quality of such food. Besides， it is the only way for enter-prises to aim for scale and intensive development in the interna-tional market.

The \"ten systems\" are: three for supervision at the source，and one for credit building - a red list and a blacklist for foodexport enterprises.