A truck carrying health supplements from Canada enters the Yiwu Comprehensive Bonded Zone on Dec 13. [Photo/Tide News]
A truck carrying health supplements from Canada entered Yiwu Comprehensive Bonded Zone in Yiwu county-level city of Jinhua, Zhejiang province, on Dec 13, after completing the customs procedures, marking a successful trial in optimizing the import registration of health foods.
This achievement opens a new pathway for importing more high-quality health supplements into China.
The imported goods — liquid calcium — were manufactured by Canada-based NuGale Pharmaceutical Inc. According to Pan Yanxia, China regional manager of NuGale, the initial registration process for exporting to China had taken over a year but still failed due to an inadequate understanding of relevant regulations.
With the help of Yiwu's optimized registration services, the registration was finished at one go, saving at least nine months.
Health supplements in China require registration or filing to get the "Blue Hat" sign, which is not easy for companies. Currently, NuGale is registering three more products, following the same streamlined process. "We have great confidence in the Chinese market," said Pan. "With Yiwu's support, we plan to introduce more premium health foods into China."
In recent years, Yiwu has been expanding import channels like the Yiwu Comprehensive Bonded Zone and the return China-Europe freight train service. This year, the city saw 86.13 billion yuan ($12.23 billion) in imports from January to October, a 31.1 percent increase, with consumer goods comprising 57.3 percent of the total.
Luo Chenglin, an official from Zhejiang China Commodities City Group's import division, highlighted the strong demand for imported health foods. Yiwu's reform measures enable more efficient, cost-effective registrations, ensuring product quality and safety via digital traceability systems.
Following this trial's success, Yiwu plans to refine the import process further, enabling flexible import channels and fostering cost-effective and efficient trade practices.
