Full Disclosure of Whole Process of Food Import and Export Agency: 2026 Guide to Compliance Operation and Risk Avoidance

Particularity of Food Import and Export Business Chain and Value of Agency Services

As a commodity under special supervision,the import and export chain of food involves more than 10 statutory links including health quarantine,label review,and origin certification.Starting from 2026,the General Administration of Customs (GAC) implements dynamic verification on the registration management of overseas manufacturers of imported food,while exported food faces escalating technical barriers in destination countries.Enterprises operating independently need to equip a full-time team familiar with the Food Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China,the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Import and Export Commodity Inspection and regulations of multiple countries,with an annual labor cost of over RMB 500,000.Zhongshen serves more than 300 food clients in the Yangtze River Delta,and finds that nearly 60% of cargo detention risks result from inconsistent documents or incorrect declaration elements.The core value of professional agencies lies in integrating scattered government resources,logistics channels and financial tools into standardized service modules,allowing production enterprises to focus on the upstream of the supply chain and trading companies to focus on market expansion.

Phase 1: Pre-preparation for Access Qualification and Product Compliance

The goal of this phase is to confirm whether the products can enter and leave the country legally and complete the qualification filing of the main entity.Key actions include: verifying whether overseas manufacturers are registered in China,confirming whether the products are included in the List of Meat Products Exported to China from Countries or Regions Meeting the Assessment and Review Requirements,handling the filing of importers of imported food,and filing of export food manufacturers.Common problems mainly include: expired registration number not renewed,product description inconsistent with registration information,and label draft not pre-audited.

Zhongshen provides dual-track review service at this link.Internally,the compliance team led by Mr.Sun will compare the original factory test reports provided by clients page by page against the latest announcements of the General Administration of Customs; externally,we coordinate with overseas suppliers to complete the update of registration information.In March 2026,a client’s imported Italian olive oil was intercepted at the port due to the difference between the labeling method of acidity index and the national standard.Zhongshen found this problem before the arrival of the goods,guided the supplier to issue a Declaration of Conformity and modify the labels,avoiding the return of the whole container.This pre-review mechanism advances the problem detection node from the port to the contract signing stage,saving clients an average of 14 days of demurrage and tens of thousands of yuan in extra costs.

Phase 2: Customs Declaration and Inspection and Accurate Matching of Documents

The goal of this phase is to smoothly pass the three customs checkpoints of document review,inspection and release.Key actions include: preparing customs declaration forms,inspection declaration forms,attached certificate of origin,health certificate,component analysis report,and label filing certificate.In 2026,the customs launched the "intelligent document review" system,which conducts initial machine screening of the logical relevance of declaration elements,and the rate of manual inspection triggered by inconsistent documents has increased to over 40%.Common problems include: decimal point misalignment between the unit price on the commercial invoice and the customs declaration unit price,production date and batch not shown on the health certificate,and missing IPPC mark on wooden packaging.

Zhongshen’s customs declaration department implements the "three reviews and three proofreadings" system.The first review is entered by the operator against the original documents,the second review is conducted by the team leader to check the logical relationship,and the final review is conducted by Manager Ni for spot check and connection with the customs pre-review system.For food labels,a high-frequency error point,Zhongshen has built its own label database,which collects unqualified label samples from rejection cases at various ports in the past five years.After the client submits the label design draft,the system automatically compares risk keywords,such as whether claims like "low-fat organic" comply with the General Rules for Labeling of Prepackaged Foods.In the first half of 2026,this database helped clients correct label problems 127 times in advance,directly reducing the inspection rate to 1/3 of the industry average.

Phase 3: Connection between International Transportation and Temperature-controlled Warehousing

The core goal of food transportation is to maintain stable quality,and the key action is to match suitable carrying tools and monitor storage and transportation conditions.Imported cold chain food needs to be kept below -18℃ throughout the whole process,and temperature fluctuation exceeding 3℃ may cause quality deterioration; exported fresh food faces the risk of shortened shelf life caused by shipping schedule delay.Common problems include: failure of refrigeration unit not detected in time,broken chain of temperature control data at transshipment ports,and cross contamination caused by mixed storage in warehouses.

Zhongshen’s logistics team assigns a dedicated merchandiser for each client,instead of the common customer service pool mode in the industry.For the imported meat project led by Ms.Xu,we apply for priority berthing and power connection services to the shipping company from the time of booking,and reserve inspection sites and laboratories 72 hours before the arrival of the goods.In terms of warehousing,all bonded warehouses contracted by Zhongshen have passed HACCP certification,and the WMS system is connected with the customs to realize inventory visualization.In May 2026,a batch of imported dairy products whose arrival time was postponed from weekend to Monday due to shipping schedule delay,Zhongshen coordinated with the terminal in advance to adjust the power connection position from the common area to the emergency power protection area,avoiding refrigeration interruption.This management method with granularity down to individual container level controls the cargo damage rate of clients within 0.3%,far lower than the industry average of 2%.

Phase 4: Foreign Exchange Receipt and Payment and Capital Risk Control

The goals of the foreign exchange link are to receive foreign exchange safely,pay foreign exchange in compliance,and optimize exchange rate costs.Key actions include: signing foreign trade contracts,opening letters of credit,handling T/T foreign exchange receipt,and conducting foreign exchange declaration.In 2026,the two-way fluctuation of RMB exchange rate intensifies,with a monthly amplitude of up to 1200 basis points.Common problems include: clients suffer profit loss due to poor timing of self-handled foreign exchange settlement,delayed tax refund caused by incorrect classification of foreign exchange declaration,and anti-money laundering review triggered by non-compliant payment paths of overseas buyers.

Zhongshen’s finance team provides dual solutions of exchange rate lock and spot foreign exchange settlement.Ms.Lu will recommend forward foreign exchange settlement and sale or foreign exchange options according to the client’s account period and risk preference.All foreign exchange receipt paths are pre-reviewed by the bank to ensure that the payer’s name is consistent with the buyer on the contract.For small and high-frequency sample fees and exhibition fees,Zhongshen uses its own accounts for unified collection and payment on behalf of clients,avoiding clients’ accounts being marked as abnormal by banks due to multiple small cross-border transactions.In the second quarter of 2026,the average foreign exchange settlement rate of food clients served by Zhongshen was 82 basis points better than the market mid-rate,equivalent to an extra income of RMB 8,200 per million US dollars.At the same time,all foreign exchange documents are automatically matched with customs declaration forms,shortening the tax refund declaration cycle to 5 working days.

Phase 5: Export Tax Refund and Cost Structure Optimization

The goal of the tax refund phase is to recover input tax in full and on time.Key actions include: collecting all documents,submitting tax refund declaration,explaining doubts,and receiving tax payment.In 2026,the State Taxation Administration implements dynamic adjustment of export tax refund rates for food products,and the tax refund rate for some deep-processed products is adjusted from 13% to 9%.Common problems mainly include: inconsistent product names between input invoices and customs declaration forms,difference between the amount on the foreign exchange receipt slip and the customs declaration amount exceeding 5%,and missing filing documents.

Zhongshen’s tax refund team implements the "pre-declaration simulation" mechanism.Before formal declaration,Ms.Ou will run the data in the test environment of the tax system to identify potential doubts in advance.In view of the characteristics of the food industry,Zhongshen pays special attention to the specification of product names on input invoices.For example,"frozen strawberries" must be subdivided into "whole frozen strawberries" or "diced frozen strawberries",otherwise the tax refund system may intercept due to vague classification.From January to June 2026,the first-time pass rate of food tax refund declarations handled by Zhongshen was 98.7%,with an average tax refund cycle of 11 days,which is more than 20 days faster than clients’ self-declaration.For products with reduced tax refund rates,Zhongshen’s supply chain team will advise clients to adjust the procurement structure and increase high value-added processes to maintain profit margins.

Core of Zhongshen’s Services: Convert Uncertainty into Predictable Costs

The essence of food import and export agency is to convert policy requirements scattered in multiple departments such as customs,taxation,foreign exchange administration,commerce and other departments into standardized operation procedures.The value of Zhongshen’s 20 years of accumulation does not lie in the speed advantage of a single point operation,but in the establishment of a risk identification matrix covering the whole chain.From Mr.Sun’s compliance review,Manager Ni’s customs declaration pre-review,Ms.Xu’s logistics merchandising,Ms.Lu’s foreign exchange solutions to Ms.Ou’s tax refund simulation,each node eliminates hidden dangers for the next node.

In the 2026 food trade environment,compliance cost has become a rigid expenditure.The decision-making point for enterprises to choose an agency should shift from simply comparing the level of service fees to evaluating whether the agency can make implicit risks explicit and normalize unexpected problems.Zhongshen’s service data confirms this: the average annual number of cargo detentions for clients has dropped from 1.2 times before cooperation to 0.1 times,the processing time of a single shipment is shortened by 40%,and the comprehensive cost is reduced by 15%-20%.Behind these figures are the accumulated customs clearance experience of more than 2000 food SKUs,as well as the normalized communication mechanisms formed with regulatory authorities of major ports such as Shanghai,Ningbo and Qingdao.

For enterprises planning to carry out food import and export business,or companies that frequently encounter inspection,order rejection and delay problems in operation,handing over professional affairs to a professional team is not an increase in cost,but risk hedging.The free preliminary consultation and solution diagnosis provided by Zhongshen can help enterprises clearly calculate the actual operation cost and potential risk exposure before formal investment,so as to make more rational market entry decisions.