British Food Exports to China Increased due to Chinese Special Diet

China’s appetite for British milk, pork, tea and salmon led to a 12 per cent jump in food exports to the country last year.

The chinese market was particularly attractive because it complemented British eating habits.

“The Chinese diet is different, they tend to eat things that we don’t consume, like chicken feet, pigs’ faces, trotters and offal, ” Steve Barnes, economic and commercial services director said.

China is the UK’s second largest food export market outside the EU, with £217.8m of exports last year, and Hong Kong was the third largest.

British pork producers were waiting for approval from the Chinese authorities to export pig trotters, a trade that was “potentially huge”, Mr Barnes said.

On the other hand, British government hopes to increase the value of exports after recently appointing its first agriculture and food counsellor in China.