When the doors closed on FHC Shanghai 2025 at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre on November 14, the organizers counted 173,143 professional visitors across the three-day show. For a food exhibition competing in one of the world’s most crowded trade-fair calendars, that number told its own story: China’s appetite for international food and beverage sourcing remains very much alive.
The American bet on China
One of the clearest data points of the edition came from the USA Pavilion, where 21 American exporters exhibited under the USDA banner. According to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service’s GAIN report CH2026-0040, the participating companies projected roughly $10 million in sales over the twelve months following the show — close to half a million dollars per exhibitor on average. The figure is self-reported, but as a directional indicator of exhibitor confidence it is difficult to dismiss.
What importers were actually hunting
Reports from the show floor pointed to sustained buyer interest in frozen fruits, dairy, meat and value-added ingredients — categories where Chinese food manufacturers and distributors are actively expanding their import programs. Frozen produce in particular continues to benefit from the cold-chain buildout in lower-tier cities, where modern retail and foodservice are growing at their fastest.
The visitor mix matters as much as the headcount. FHC has long positioned itself as a professional-only event, and the 2025 edition’s attendance suggests that the buyers who matter — category managers, distributors, hotel and restaurant procurement teams — are still making the trip.
The timing matters. FHC 2025 landed in a year when US-China tariff headlines dominated the trade press, and the show’s turnout suggests Chinese buyers are separating procurement decisions from political noise. For American exporters in particular, the $10 million projection is a bet that Chinese demand for US food products can keep growing even as the policy environment gets tougher — a bet underwritten by USDA market-development programs that have spent years building buyer relationships on the ground.
The takeaway
For exporters weighing whether China belongs in their 2026 market plans, FHC’s attendance and the USA Pavilion’s sales projection offer a useful counterweight to the tariff-noise narrative. Demand for imported food ingredients is a demand story, not a policy story — and the buyers who walked those aisles came to purchase. The exhibitors who prepare early, line up compliant labeling and bring trial-ready product are the ones who tend to convert conversations into containers.
