How much food does US export to China?
U.S. agricultural exports to China in fiscal year (FY) 2022 were $36.4 billion and surpassed the previous year's record with China as the largest export market for the second consecutive year.
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Threats to China's Food Security.
Agricultural Sustainability in Selected Countries (2018) | ||
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Country | FSI Agricultural Sustainability Ranking (out of 67) | Arable Land (acres per person in 2016) |
United States | 33 | 1.16 |
India | 47 | 0.29 |
China | 57 | 0.21 |
The top US goods exports to China are oilseeds and grains, semiconductors and their componentry, oil and gas, and motor vehicles. Many states also generate substantial economic value from service exports like travel, education, and financial services.
U.S. goods and services trade with China totaled an estimated $615.2 billion in 2020. Exports were $164.9 billion; imports were $450.4 billion. The U.S. goods and services trade deficit with China was $285.5 billion in 2020.
Through Oct. 2022, U.S. beef export value to China is up 50% year-over-year to just under $2 billion.
The US is actually self-sufficient in basic food production. Not only is the US self-sufficient in basic food production, but the country also provides food for a large part of the rest of the world.
The country still relies heavily on food imports, especially soybeans, beef and oilseeds. More than 80% of the soybeans consumed in China were imported. The beef import has also been increasing rapidly over the past decade and reached a record-high annual import of 2,330,000 tons in 2021.
In 2020, the top partner countries from which China Imports Food include Brazil, United States, New Zealand, Australia and Canada.
China is obsessed with food security. You might not realize just how obsessed: stockpiling rapidly, by the end of the year China – with its 20% of the world's population – is projected to have accumulated and stashed away some 65% of the world's corn and 53% of the world's wheat.
Can China feed themselves?
According to our model, some 492 million tons of grain can be produced at current technology without additional irrigation. However, depending on diet, this may still not be enough for China's grain demand in 2025, which was estimated at up to 650 million tons.
The US imports a lot of stuff from China. Over $560 billion worth of goods came into the US from China in 2018, making up more than 21% of the value of all goods the US imported. In May, the US threatened to add an additional 25% tariff on goods that account for $300 billion worth of annual imports.

Items | Value (US$B) | % of Total Imports |
---|---|---|
Automatic data processing machines | $37.2 | 8.4% |
Trycicles, scooters and similar wheeled toys & other toys | $12.3 | 2.8% |
Communication apparatus | $11.3 | 2.5% |
Games; articles for funfair | $5.4 | 1.2% |
Trade In November 2022, the top exports of United States were Refined Petroleum ($10.7B), Crude Petroleum ($10.4B), Aircraft Parts ($7.65B), Petroleum Gas ($7.01B), and Commodities not elsewhere specified ($5.8B).
If the U.S. is forced to sell half of its direct investments in China, that would cost American investors $25 billion a year in capital gains and up to $500 billion in GDP losses, the report said. U.S. businesses risk losing global competitiveness if sweeping policies force separation from China, the report said.
The U.S. has been the largest economy in the world by GDP since the metric came into favor in the mid-1900s. But China has grown at a far greater pace in recent decades, with its GDP growing from just 12% of the U.S.' in 2000 to 77% last year.
Using the purchasing power parity measure, China's GDP passed the US GDP around 2014. Since then it has made the gap larger. Some folks seem to find it hard to accept that the US does not have the world's largest economy, but such is life.
As for beef, an American eats 26.3 kg whereas a Chinese eats only 4.1 kg a year, an almost seven times difference. Based on this, individually, a Chinese person's environmental impact based on meat consumption is low.
Top 10 Export Markets for U.S. Pork (values in million USD) | ||
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Country | 2016 | 2019 |
China | 713 | 1,300 |
Japan | 1,553 | 1,523 |
Mexico | 1,360 | 1,278 |
How much beef does the US export to China?
US beef exports to China, including Hong Kong, reached a record high of US$2.23 billion in the first 10 months of 2022, up nearly a third from the previous year, data from the department showed. Exports to mainland China and Hong Kong surpassed US$2 billion for the first time last year.
- China. China is the world's biggest producer, importer, and consumer of food. ...
- India. In terms of total calorie content, India is the second-largest food producer in the world. ...
- The United States. ...
- Brazil.
Rank | Country | Ratio (%) |
---|---|---|
1 | Norway | 50.1 |
2 | Belgium | 50.6 |
3 | Haiti | 51.0 |
4 | Somalia | 52.4 |
The leading U.S. agricultural exports are grains and feeds, soybeans, livestock products, tree nuts, fruits, vegetables, and other horticultural products. The leading U.S. imports are horticultural and tropical products. Canada, Mexico, the European Union, and East Asia are major U.S. trade partners.
China imports food in every major category, but it is only truly dependent on imports for soybeans, of which it imports 85% of its consumption, mainly from the United States and Brazil. China itself produces over 90% of the wheat, rice, and corn it consumes, as well as over 85% of all the meat it consumes.
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- Madagascar.
- Democratic Republic of Congo. ...
- Chad. ...
- Haiti. ...
- Niger. ...
- Liberia. GHI score in 2000: 48.2. ...
- Lesotho. GHI score in 2000: 32.7. ...
- Sierra Leone. GHI score in 2000: 57.5. ...
Currently, China ranks first in the world in terms of the production of cereals, cotton, fruit, vegetables, meat, poultry, eggs and fishery products.
Supply-chain bottlenecks, labor shortages, bad weather and a surge in consumer demand are among the factors responsible for the spike. So, too, is a lesser-known phenomenon: China is hoarding key commodities.
China ranked 34th out of 113 countries in the 2021 Global Food Security Index, published in September, which measures food affordability, availability, quality and safety, and natural resources and resilience.
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Leading global importers of agricultural products in 2020, by country (in billion U.S.dollars)
What is America's biggest food export?
In 2021, the biggest agricultural export in the United States overall was soybeans, resulting in $27.37 billion in export value. These are the U.S.'s biggest exports in the agricultural sector: Soybeans: $27.37 billion. Corn: $18.72 billion.
China's Share in U.S. – World Trade
In 2021, 8.6% of total U.S. exports of $1.8 trillion to the World were exported to China and 17.9% of total U.S. Imports of $2.8 trillion were imported from China.
In 2021, food imports for China was 8.1 %.
Key Takeaways
The U.S. is the world's top food exporter thanks to high crop yields and extensive agricultural infrastructure. Brazil is the world's fourth-largest food producer and second-largest importer; it is heavily dependent on imports by China.
In most years, the United States exports more meat than it imports, according to the USDA. Meat from foreign sources accounts for roughly 8-20 percent of total U.S. meat supplies, but only the portions that are imported directly as meat are obvious.
- China. China is the world's biggest producer, importer, and consumer of food. ...
- India. In terms of total calorie content, India is the second-largest food producer in the world. ...
- The United States. ...
- Brazil.
Agricultural exports support more than one million American jobs, with roughly 70 percent of these jobs in the non-farm sector, such as in processing and agricultural manufacturing. Overall, U.S. farmers and ranchers export more than 20 percent of what they produce.
Trade surged: the value of U.S. goods imports from China rose from about $100 billion in 2001 to $500 billion in 2021. This leap in imports is due in part to China's critical position in global supply chains; Chinese factories assemble products for export to the United States using components from all over the world.
Food security in China
With its vast population, China has managed to maintain relatively stable domestic food prices and supplies. The domestic food price saw a moderate year-on-year increase of 0.4% in the first half of 2022, compared to the global growth of 25.2%.
A 2021 report by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and International Food Policy Research Institute found that China will be 99.3% self-sufficient in the production of staple grains including wheat and rice by 2025 (Jingji cankao bao, May 25, 2021).