China's food export back to growth in March

BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- China's food export reached 2.62 billion U.S.
dollars in March, up 8.9 percent from a year earlier, presenting the first
year-on-year growth in the last five months, said General Administration of
Customs (GAC) here on Monday.

Export of fruit led the growth, rising 23.5 percent in March. Seafood was
up 16.2 percent year on year.

Food export totaled 7.17 U.S. dollars in the first quarter, down 5.5
percent year on year.

The country's food export had been falling since October 2008, affected by
the global financial crisis and the baby milk scandal that left six infants dead
and almost 300,000 ill, said the GAC in an online analysis on food export posted
on Monday.

The situation improved as governmental and industry efforts to strengthen
food safety supervision and expand export began to pay off, according the
analysis.

The overall demand for food was still there, said the GAC.

However, the shadow of the global economic downturn and concerns over food
safety could still be felt, reflected in the year-on-year drop of the food
exported such as vegetable and fruit juice, canned mushrooms, meat products and
live poultry, according to the administration.