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Chinese consumers' demand for imported food has been growing steadily as the standard of living is improving in their country. China's total food imports amounted to $58.28 billion last year, up 25 percent year-on-year, while the annual average growth rate over the previous five years was 5.7 percent, data has shown.

The European Union remained China's largest supplier of food, followed by the United States, New Zealand, Indonesia and Canada. Meat, oil, dairy and seafood were among the most popular food imports in China.

Chen Weinian, purchasing director at Shanghai's City Shop, said that foreign food used to be consumed mainly by foreign expatriates and is now being favoured by many more Chinese.

A separate report from the National Development and Reform Commission showed that the country's Engel's coefficient, which measures food expenditure as a proportion of total household spending, dropped to 29.3 percent in 2017, below the benchmark of 30 percent set by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations for the first time and falling into the range for a wealthy life.

Although the proportion of income spent on food fell, Chinese people have become increasingly picky about their food consumption and want diversity and exotic tastes. For instance, over the past few years, China has been increasing its fruit imports from Latin America. China.org.cn reported how the country's avocado imports from Mexico, Chile and Peru in 2017 alone reached 30,000 tons.

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