Bulgarian saffron, Croatian tuna granted Chinese market access

Bulgarian saffron and Croatian tuna were granted Chinese market access on Thursday, adding to the list of imported agricultural and food products from Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) for Chinese consumers.

Import access was approved for these products during the fourth China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair, which opened on Thursday in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province.

According to data released by China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) on the same day, a total of 126 types of agricultural and food products from CEECs have been granted access to China.

China has streamlined its approval processes and enhanced its customs clearance efficiency in recent years, allowing CEEC delicacies such as Polish amber beer and Latvian canned fish to enter the Chinese market more easily.

Against the backdrop of a complex international landscape, China-CEEC cooperation is providing greater certainty and vitality to the world economy, according to GAC deputy chief Zhao Zenglian.

China's expansion of agricultural imports has bolstered bilateral trade. Customs data shows that China-CEEC trade totaled 142.27 billion U.S. dollars in 2024 -- up 6.3 percent year on year and outpacing China's overall import-export growth by 2.5 percentage points.