Polluted soil concerns Chinese consumers, leading to some shoppers paying more attention to fresh produces' country of origin rather than its price. Since a 2008 scandal in which toxic melamine in formula milk killed six babies and hospitalized some 54,000, Chinese consumers have grown increasingly wary of locally produced food.
China's State Council has described the soil pollution as "grim" and in May released an action plan under which it aims to make 90% of polluted arable soil safe for humans within the next four years. In a 2014 study, China found that more than 19% of arable land is contaminated with toxins such as cadmium, nickel and arsenic, which can cause cancer and birth defects.
Organizations such as Greenpeace have cast doubt on the ambitious cleanup goals. Local governments that will be responsible for implementing it could lack the capacity and expertise to do so, Greenpeace said.
But even if the 300 billion yuan ($45.2 billion) campaign is successful, it could be hard to win back the trust of consumers. Ada Kong, Greenpeace's East Asia toxics campaign manager, said, "It would be difficult [for consumers] to distinguish" between polluted and clean products.
Even organic products are not fully trusted, said Chen Tai'an, chief agricultural scientist of Mahota Farms, an organic farm on the outskirts of Shanghai. Zucchini and tomatoes are some of the produce grown there.
Although his organic produce is grown according to international standards, imported food is still more popular. Even Chen turns to imports if he cannot source ingredients from his own farm. "People believe that imported food is safer and of better quality," he said.
World impact
In 2000, China accounted for 3.3% of world agriculture imports, according to the World Trade Organization. But by 2014, that figure had grown to 9.1%. The Association of Food Industries predicts that China will be the world's largest consumer of imported foods by 2018.
Agricultural exports from the U.S. to China have grown by more than 200% in the past decade. Last year, farm and food exports to China were worth more than $20.2 billion.
For Australia, China is already the biggest importer of its agricultural, forestry and fisheries products, worth 9 billion Australian dollars ($6.95 billion) in 2014-2015, up from A$5 billion four years before. Since 2009-2010, horticultural exports have grown more than fivefold, from A$20 million to A$113 million, according to a report from the Australian government. The report also found that fruit exports grew the most, from A$6 million to A$64 million.
European Union exports to China grew to 10.34 billion euros ($11.56 billion) last year, up 39% from 2014. Pork, citrus fruits, and cereals other than rice and wheat were in high demand. China now accounts for 9.5% of all exports from the EU.
Affluent Chinese will always choose imported products over local ones, said James Roy, a business analyst at China Market Research Group. Brands are almost no longer important to the Chinese consumer when it comes to food, as long as the product's origin is foreign.
"For foreign food and agriculture brands, it's really important to emphasize where they are manufactured, and to show where it comes from," said Roy.
Governments are encouraging their exporters to take advantage of such demand. During a visit to promote agricultural products in China earlier this year, EU Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan said that an estimated 3 million jobs in Europe already directly depend on export sales to China, many of them in the agriculture sector.