The American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) is calling on feed producers that are currently exporting feed additives or premixes to China and those that are looking to expand into the Chinese market to register their facility.
Feed additive and premix facility registration with China's General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQISQ) is a requirement to export to China.
The AFIA is coordinating the US industry facility registration effort. Registering costs $500 for non-members and $250 for AFIA members.
Under Chinese import laws, every US exporter to the Asian country must be registered with the Chinese government. The authorities there review and re-register US exporters to China every five years. The call applies to companies that:
- Currently export feed additives and/or premixes to China and you want to maintain your market access;
- Want to export feed additives and/or premixes to China, but your products do not have access; or
- Are considering China as part of your business focus for feed additives and/or premixes in the next five years.
The application process is open until 3 March.
Gina Tumbarello, AFIA director of international policy and trade, told us the option for new feed companies to enter the Chinese market has not been available for several years.
“[The regulation] allowed facilities that have been traditionally exporting [to continue], [but] we’ve been at a standstill for getting new products into the market.”
The Chinese market offers great potential, she added.
“We’ve been waiting such a long time to get this protocol in place, so new companies can capture the demand and now it’s here,” she said.
Fleeting opportunity
Feed companies that think they may have an interest in the market should sign up, said Tumbarello.
“Facilities currently, or wishing, to export feed additives or premixes, it’s important they participate in the process that AFIA is trying to facilitate right now,” she said. “It’s important that facilities will be on the original list because there’s no indication that China will do another review for another five years – this initial list needs to be as comprehensive as possible.”
The process has been made somewhat more complicated by the lack of a definition from the Chinese authorities on what a feed additive or a feed additive facility is, she said.
However, producers with questions in relation to the register process are encouraged to call the AFIA.
The eight feed categories allowed under AQISQ registration include: fishmeal, hay and alfalfa, plant protein, animal protein, pet food, feed additives and premix, compound feed and live bait.
A group of Chinese officials will also visit a representative sample of US feed additive and premix manufacturing facilities looking to export products to China so the officials can establish a list of requirements a facility must be in order to be approved for an Chinese export license:
“We’re trying to capture information to help us present a picture of what our industry looks like, and the different types of manufacturing used, so when the Chinese come out they can visit a sample that will give them a good picture,” she said. “They can establish a protocol that will be all encompassing and [that] doesn’t leave any facility out.”