EU launches "killing" of Chinese plastic kitchenware

The Zhejiang Commerce Department recently issued a news that the main measure of the new directive is that the importer must provide a statement that the product's primary aromatic amines and formaldehyde meet the EU's limited requirements, and attach a corresponding test report; in addition, the EU member states specify specific The first port of entry and publish a list of ports of entry on the Internet.

At the same time, the competent authorities of the member states of the European Union will carry out sampling inspections on imports at a rate of 10%. Only after all inspections are completed and qualified, can the goods enter the EU market freely. Otherwise, member states should immediately notify the European Commission through a rapid warning system and take relevant control measures. The Provincial Department of Commerce issues an early warning and the importer or his representative must notify the competent authority of the expected arrival date and time at least two working days prior to the arrival of the goods. Exporters of plastic kitchen utensils need to pay attention and respond accordingly to ensure that losses are minimized. On March 22 this year, the European Union issued the “No 284/2011” directive for China's kitchen utensils. The directive states that starting from July 1, special measures will be taken for polyamide and melamine plastic tableware in China and Hong Kong.

Analysts believe that the new EU directive is more stringent than the previous standard, which will further impact the export of plastic kitchen utensils and will, to a certain extent, force the normative development of the domestic plastic kitchen utensils industry. The deadline is approaching, what will be the impact of Zhejiang kitchen utensil exporters?

Exports of plastic kitchen utensils encountered "high threshold" and "toxic utensils" to allow the EU to "not mind"

There are almost no plastic kitchen and cooking companies in the EU, and 80% of the products rely on Chinese imports. Therefore, in this field, Chinese companies have always had more active quotation rights and more objective profit margins. "Why the EU will issue new directives for Chinese plastic kitchen utensils? This must be traced back to the 'toxic tableware' exposed by CCTV in 2009. Since then, the EU has been 'suspected' about China's plastic kitchen, which also leads to Last year, nearly 60 cases of plastic utensils exported by the European Union to China were reported.” Dong Jinshi, executive vice president of the International Food Packaging Association, said in an interview with the media that these cases mainly concentrated on polyamide plastic tableware primary aromatic amines and melamine tableware formaldehyde. Migration exceeded.

The new directive has higher requirements for formaldehyde limits. "The new directive not only raises the bar on entry thresholds, but also makes the standards more targeted. Undoubtedly, such products exported to the European Union will be required to be tested and provide relevant documents, which will greatly increase the Testing costs and management costs, said Dong Jinshi.

Hangzhou Enterprises Face Challenges to Accelerate Transformation and Upgrade

Faced with increasingly stringent European Union standards, China's plastic food and kitchen export companies will face unprecedented pressure and challenges. In particular, some small-scale enterprises with relatively weak production capacity will inevitably fail to meet market requirements if they use inferior raw materials for production. If higher-quality production materials are replaced, they will fall into unprofitable circumstances. In recent years, large kitchenware brands such as Supor and Deyi kitchenware have emerged in Hangzhou. From the perspective of the province, plastic kitchenware production enterprises are mainly concentrated in Ningbo, Taizhou, and Wenzhou. According to statistics, in 2010 alone, Ningbo exported 3,500 batches of plastic utensils to the European Union, and the amount exceeded US$51 million.

Hangzhou Saixu Food Limit Co., Ltd. is a company specializing in the design and production of food processing machinery. Although the main product is stainless steel kitchen utensils, some of the parts are still plastic products. For example, the container above the snow and ice machine series products. “Since our products are mainly aimed at the domestic market, exports account for only a small part, so the impact of the new EU Directive on companies is almost negligible,” said the company’s staff. The staff of a large-scale kitchenware production company in Hangzhou told reporters: “We should face this challenge. The new EU Directive, on the one hand, may impose export restrictions on enterprises and increase the cost of enterprises. But on the other hand, the new directive strictly requires that companies regulate production. This will force companies to improve their production processes and accelerate their transformation and upgrading, which will enable export companies to gain more opportunities to gain a foothold in the European market."