About half of all British exports to China came from spirits, and largely whiskey, which remains the country's most important export product. However other foods are seeing increasing sales, including seafood and offal, according to the report from industry consultants Food From Britain.

Sales of seafood to China soared by 72 per cent to £33.2 million last year. Some of the sales of frozen fish go into further processing in China, while other sales come from products that are not consumed in the UK, like the velvet crab.

"Sales of crustaceans, like the velvet crab, were up by 200 per cent during the year," said Emma Walters, international marketing executive for the organization.

Another category of offal saw a 2000 per cent sales boost, albeit from a low base, she told AP-Foodtechnology.com.

Cereals, still a small export product, are gaining too, according to Food From Britain.

The Mornflakes Oats brand has gained a strong presence in Shanghai through a successful distribution partnership and branding.

Walters said demand for higher added value products is expected to keep rising but she admitted that it is difficult to tell what factors were behind last year's higher sales to China.

"It could be something simple like more companies setting up processing units," she said, adding that it some of the products may not even be staying in the Chinese market but instead further processed for export.

Other Asian markets are also proving successful for British foods. In Singapore, export sales were up 28 per cent while in South Korea, sales rose by 22 per cent last year to £179.4 million.

Around 98 per cent of these sales to Korea came from whiskey, said Walters, a drink that has become trendy with the younger generation.

FFB has plans to further boost exports to Asia, focusing more efforts this year on opportunities in the foodservice sector.

But Walters admitted that although "Asia is seen as an investment area for us," many companies are still hesitant about moving into China.

And with current transport costs, the distance between Britain and Asia will often make closer markets like Ireland more attractive.

Ireland has long been the UK's biggest food and drink export market and sales increased another 8 per cent to £1.8 billion last year. Overall, overseas sales of British food and drink hit their highest levels in ten years during 2005, rising 3 per cent to £9.9 billion.