Spain is the country with the fastest growth in export sales to China in 2016, ranking second only to Brazil in the world. According to the foreign trade statistics of China Customs in late January 2016, the amount of
Spain imports and exports in 2016 has reached EUR 1169.5 million, which means the export amount has increased by 48% compared with 2015. In the period 2008-2016. In 2016, Spain imports and exports in China increased from 80 million to 1.17 billion, a 17 fold increase.
From the perspective of export industry, pork ranks second in Spain's total export catalogue to China, and the first is food and beverage. In this order, pork is second only to wine and olive oil. The two major export products are still striving to increase their market share in China, with growth rates of 23% and 14%, respectively. According to the report of Spanish economic and Trade Bureau in Beijing, "pork, wine and olive oil account for 83% of our total food exports to China, so they are our" flagship products "in this country. Together with other prominent products such as ham, dairy products, beer, lemon citrus and stone fruit, they have entered the Chinese market strongly.". In 2016, Spain's pork and pig offal exports reached 686.7 million euros, an increase of 81% compared with last year, ranking first in the food exports to China, accounting for 59% of the total food exports. China's total imports of such products amounted to 5.3 billion euros in 2016, up 90% from last year. The average price of Spanish pork exports is 1.68 euro / kg. In 2016, it became the third largest exporter of pork and viscera to China, second only to Germany and the United States. In 2016, due to the consultation of the Spanish government, seven new pork bases have been successfully approved for export to China, and 29 slaughterhouses have been approved, so as to ensure that the targeted growth is sustainable and lasting.
Spanish wine exports to China totaled 2.14 billion euros in 2016, up 23% from the previous year. In China, 93% of Spanish wine sales in 2016 were bottled, but bulk wine still accounted for 20% of Spanish wine exports to China. The achievements of sparkling wine in China are quite outstanding, because Spain has some important wineries in this field, which has greatly improved sales.
Olive oil ranked third in Spanish exports to China in 2016. Spanish olive oil has a record market share of 80%. In 2016, China's olive oil exports amounted to 158.8 million euros. In volume terms, China imports 38600 metric tons, of which 31000 are from Spain. Due to the low olive harvest in 2014 and 2015, and the average harvest in 2015 and 2016 can not compensate for the previous vacancy, the global shortage of olive oil led to the high price in 2016. The average price of olive oil imported into China has only dropped by 4% compared with last year, which is slightly higher than 4 euro / litre. The price increase has increased the import of pomace oil from China by 25% in 2016, with an average of 2.8 euro / L to 5500 tons.
Other prominent products Spain exports to China are beer, UHT milk powder, citrus lemon, stone fruit, mineral water, concentrated grape juice and pasta. Beer accounts for the fourth place in Spain's exports to China, with a value of 50.8 million, an increase of 45% compared with 2015, of which hand brewed beer accounts for an important proportion. This means that Spain is the third largest exporter of beer to China, after Germany and the Netherlands, but surpasses the globally recognized brands of Belgium, Mexico and France. Spanish ham exports to China stabilized at EUR 3.8 million in 2016. Although sales increased by 50% to 150 metric tons, the average price dropped from EUR 40 / kg to EUR 26 / kg.
Spain exported 12600 metric tons of citrus lemon to China in 2016. Last year Spain exported 700 metric tons of plums and 200 metric tons of peaches, nectarines and almonds, totaling 1.8 million euros. It is estimated that this data may increase significantly in 2017, because the nuclear fruit provided by Spain has attractive appearance, high quality and sweet taste, which greatly improves the expectations between Chinese importers and consumers.
