China has started import of Japan's rice and meanwhile Japan resumed its import of China's straws, sources with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) said Wednesday.

The quality watchdog said two famous brands of Japanese rice will be available in the supermarkets of some big cities in China in the next few days, primarily targeting high-income consumers.

Meanwhile China's straws for feeding which was banned in 2005, will be permitted to export to Japan again.

Li Changjiang, director of the AQSIQ, met with Japan's farm minister Norihiko Akagi on Wednesday and talked about the issues in details.

Li said that China has always attached importance to the issue of food safety, adding that the nation has worked out an effective mechanism to guaranteed the safety of food exports.

Statistics recently released by the Japanese government showed that the 99.42 percent of the Chinese food products examined by Japanese quality authorities conform to standards.

This is against 98.69 percent for food imports from US, and 99.38 percent for those from EU.

Li said that these figures prove that China's food products are safe and trustworthy.

Japanese farm minister Norihiko Akagi said China's import of Japanese rice is an important achievement in building a mutually beneficial relation between the two countries and help promote the development of a healthy relationship.

(Xinhua News Agency July 26 2007)