The status of foreign trade in Chinese seed industry: import greater than export

At present, China is in a critical period of the revitalization of the seed industry, where foreign trade is an important source and market for development of Chinese seed industry. 

In terms of agricultural crop seed development, China's import is greater than export. The import is mostly horticultural crop seed while export is mainly rice seed. In 2021, China's crop seed trade volume was US$1.01 billion, which nearly doubled the trade volume of 2011 ($560 million). Out of the trade volume, import was $680 million which mainly include vegetable seeds ($240 million accounting for 35.3%), feed seeds ($160 million accounting for 23.5%), flower and seed ($150 million accounting for 22.1%); the import are mostly horticultural crop seeds, vegetable seeds such as carrot, spinach, onion, premium tomato, sugar beet and ryegrass, which have an high import dependence of above 90%. Export reached $330 million, the main varieties include vegetable seeds ($110 million accounting for 33.3%), rice seeds ($95.1 million accounting for 28.8%), nursery stock ($46.04 million accounting for 14%); ricer seed is China’s dominant export variety, being exported to about 40 countries and regions, the others are mostly external varieties. 

Concerning the territory of trade, China's import sources are the United States, the Netherlands, Japan, Chile, Denmark and Thailand; the destinations of export are the Netherlands, Pakistan, the Philippines, the United States, South Korea, Vietnam and Japan.