From caviar to foie gras: China’s next export shock

(Edited and refined by Grace Chong, with the assistance of AI translation.)

“Even French foie gras is being outclassed by China!” 

My friend sent me this message after seeing a news report that China’s foie gras production was rapidly closing in on France’s.

Once synonymous with French fine dining, foie gras has been steadily “demystified” in China. It is no longer an exclusive luxury but an increasingly accessible ingredient, finding its way into everything from foie gras fried rice to hotpot, where thin slices are briefly cooked in simmering broth. Even in upscale restaurants, the once-novel “foie gras cherry” has become a staple on the menu.

China’s foie gras production catches up

This shift has been fuelled by the rapid growth of China’s foie gras industry.

Reuters, citing industry estimates, reported that China produced as much as 14,000 tonnes of foie gras in 2025 — a 30% year-on-year increase and seven times the level of a decade earlier. Compared with France’s output of 15,044 tonnes last year, China is now just one step away from becoming the world’s largest foie gras producer.

For now, China still imposes strict restrictions on foie gras exports. But that has not stopped producers from eyeing overseas markets. Industry players remain confident that it is only a matter of time before Chinese foie gras appears on dining tables around the world.

The rise of China’s foie gras industry, however, has also unsettled French producers. Fabien Chevalier, chairman of French foie gras industry group CIFOG, admitted that the speed of China’s development had caught him completely off guard, describing it as “worrying”.

The caviar story came first

In fact, a similar transformation had already taken place with caviar.

One of Europe’s “three great delicacies”, caviar has long faced an unstoppable challenge from China. French media reported late last year that Chinese caviar was quietly gaining ground in global markets, squeezing out products from traditional producers such as France and Iran. China has since become the world’s largest exporter of caviar.

According to data from the United Nations’ International Trade Centre, China exported 322 tonnes of caviar in 2024 — more than double the amount exported five years earlier. Chinese companies in the sector have also moved beyond contract manufacturing to build their own brands.

One example is Kaluga Queen, a large-scale sturgeon farming and caviar producer based at Zhejiang’s Qiandao Lake. The company began its public offering on 22 June and is expected to ring the opening bell at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 30 June.

Before developing its own brand, Kaluga Queen produced caviar as an original equipment manufacturer for French, Swiss and American brands. Today, its products have entered Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris and New York, feature in first-class meals served by international airlines, and have helped the company become a global industry leader.

China Shock 2.0

Whether in foie gras or caviar, the rise of Chinese players in dining markets reflects a new form of competitiveness. It also mirrors a broader pattern of industrial upgrading across many Chinese industries in recent years: first surviving fierce competition at home, then reshaping industry dynamics and eventually outcompeting overseas rivals.

Western academics and commentators have described this new wave of competition from China in global trade and advanced manufacturing as “China Shock 2.0”.

China, however, argues that today’s competitiveness is the natural result of industrial upgrading, a more optimised economic structure and rising competitiveness. It attributes China’s expanding global market share to market forces, while rejecting the argument that “China Shock 2.0” is merely another version of the “overcapacity” narrative.

China’s ‘absolute advantage’

Yasheng Huang, a long-time researcher of the Chinese economy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, recently highlighted a notable feature of China’s development in an article: after China’s overall level of development rose, it did not pursue an East Asian model of moving into higher-end industries while gradually withdrawing from lower-end manufacturing.

The result is a rare situation. China now competes with African countries in lower-end sectors such as textiles, clothing and inexpensive household goods, while simultaneously going head-to-head with the US in advanced fields including artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and electronics.

This challenges the traditional economic concept of “comparative advantage”, making China what Huang describes as an “absolute advantage economy” — one that competes across both ends of the industrial spectrum.

Huang argues that China’s advantage across industries still largely comes down to price, as wages make up an extremely small share of manufacturing costs. Meanwhile, many in Europe and the US attribute China’s competitiveness to industrial policies and subsidies.

Whatever the explanation, China’s “absolute advantage” in global trade has undoubtedly created growing unease in overseas markets.

When Chinese companies take the competition overseas

In recent years, one word has repeatedly surfaced when discussing Chinese companies expanding overseas with Singaporean businesses: involution.

A common perception is that Chinese companies “finish competing fiercely at home, then take that competition abroad, leaving others with nowhere to go”.

The forces behind this “involution” are complex. Fierce domestic competition has given Chinese companies a strong sense of crisis and pushed them towards a more aggressive, survival-of-the-fittest approach.

Chinese entrepreneurs are also quick-thinking and highly adaptable. They are no longer satisfied with simply adopting existing ideas, but have increasingly focused on technological improvements, supply chain management innovation and reshaping industry dynamics. These are positive forces.

But when this “involution” goes too far or takes the wrong direction — turning into destructive competition or winner-takes-all battles — problems emerge. It can trigger tariff barriers and anti-dumping investigations, while reinforcing concerns overseas about the impact of Chinese competition over time.

It is much like Chinese foie gras: before it has even entered global markets at scale, French producers are already sounding the alarm.

As more Chinese companies expand overseas, it is time to consider how the story of Chinese products and businesses going global should be shaped.

This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as “当法式鹅肝成为中国特产”.

Related: How caviar became China’s most unexpected success story | China as an absolute advantage economy