Recently, China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) announced that cashew nuts produced in African countries with diplomatic relations with China now have access to the Chinese market under unified inspection, quarantine, and sanitary requirements. 

The Changsha Customs Authority, as the local customs authority overseeing the Pioneering Zone for In-depth China-Africa Economic and Trade Cooperation, was designated by GAC to take the lead in the special mission of assessing African cashew nut access to China. Leveraging the innovative measure of the Hunan Pilot Free Trade Zone—the pre-assessment system for African foodstuffs exported to China—the authority compiled the Risk Assessment Report on African Cashew Nuts Exported to China, laying a solid technical foundation for their access to China.

Africa is the world's largest supplier of cashew nuts. Previously, only a few African countries, including Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Gambia, had obtained quarantine access for their cashew exports to China. Going forward, for the African countries with diplomatic relations with China seeking to export cashew nuts to China, it is not compulsory to go through country-by-country quarantine access negotiations. As long as the cashew nuts meet the inspection, quarantine and sanitary requirements listed in the announcement, they can be exported to China. This measure greatly streamlines the procedures for quarantine access while firmly upholding food safety standards, broadening the sources of cashew imports, enriching domestic market supply, and helping deepen and solidify China-Africa agricultural economic and trade cooperation.

"In 2025, our company imported over 400 tonnes of cashew nuts from Africa. The new policy has broadened and stabilized our raw materials sources while making costs more predictable," said the manager of a Changsha-based agricultural company. Building on the full zero-tariff measure implemented for African countries with diplomatic relations with China, the company will accelerate the expansion of the entire African cashew nut industry chain. It plans to set up processing plants in several major cashew-producing countries in Africa to boost imports and meet domestic demand.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government. www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Pang Yuehui

Chinese source: Hunan Daily