Healthy appetite for imports

Nation's growing middle class shells out more for foreign agricultural products

China has long taken a cautious approach to controlling its staple grain import quota each year to ensure food security, but when it comes to other foodstuffs, overseas agricultural products are being warmly welcomed by the nation's fast growing middle class.

Thanks to the country's fatter wallets and increasingly diverse diet, China imported 320,000 metric tons of fresh milk and 283,000 tons of mutton in 2014, up 73.5 and 9.3 percent year-on-year, according to the General Administration of Customs.