UK’s Environment Secretary Owen Paterson is heading a food trade delegation to China this week, as a part of an effort to increase dairy exports to China and boost the economy by £1bn.
Paterson will meet dairy companies, trade associations, industry experts and retailers in Shanghai, in order to begin trade development with China. He will also showcase tea, desserts, beer, meat, and confectionery produced by British companies.
Several small- and medium-sized British businesses will be in Shangai to sell their products to 30,000 importers at the giant Food and Hotel China exhibition - a trade show which will be held from 14 to 16 November.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the department responsible for policy and regulations for food in UK, noted that Britain currently imports £1.2bn more dairy produce than it exports, which indicates that there is a lot of scope for growth at home and abroad.
Since the domestic producers cannot meet the increased demand for dairy products in China, the UK can significantly boost production, while other European Union (EU) are restricted by milk quotas until 2015, according to Defra.
In order to improve trade with China, Defra plans to conduct a dairy export summit in 2013 to share the insight into the Chinese market with other companies.
