Rising investment in rail links between China and Europe could boost Chinese imports of fresh foods like meat and dairy products, predicts a report from Dutch bank Rabobank.

Railway lines built in recent years connecting southern Chinese cities to Europe significantly reduce transport times compared with ocean freight. But they are mainly used to ship industrial and IT products to Western markets, while many wagons return to China empty.

New facilities to handle agricultural products at Chinese rail terminals would allow for more imports of perishable goods, open trade routes, and raise Europe's advantage in agricultural trade with China, the report said.

"It could potentially be a game changer," said Jeroen Nijsen, Rabobank Asia chief executive, noting 20 per cent of China's food imports came from Europe.

"Transportation time is about 40-50 days - if that could be brought down to 13 days or two weeks it could bring a whole new potential to Europe."

China currently imports US$6-7 billion of perishable food from Europe each year, mainly pork, dairy, fruit and seafood.

But Chinese demand for high quality, fresh food is growing rapidly. Fresh produce sales are booming at online retailers who are expected to see annual sales growth of more than 50 per cent in coming years.

Imported food accounts for 13 per cent of online food sales.

But investment is needed in cold storage facilities to handle imports.

The YuXinOu railway, launched in 2011, runs from Chongqing through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany, and ends in the Netherlands. But with no fruit or meat-designated ports at the Chongqing terminal, agricultural products from Europe cannot be handled by customs and cold storage facilities are inadequate.

Use of more and larger trains would cut costs, allowing rail a share of the 10 million tonnes of perishable goods shipped to China by sea each year, said the report.