The smuggling of agricultural products, including rice and frozen meat, into China is soaring because of the nation's rising cost of food, according to the General Administration of Customs on Thursday.

Between January and March, national customs investigated 114 cases of smuggling of agricultural products worth 1.46 billion yuan ($235 million), according to figures released by the administration. That figure represents a 10 percent increase from the total number of smuggling cases in 2012.

In 2013, there were 218 cases of rice smuggling, up 53 percent compared with 2011. There were also 720 cases of smuggling frozen beef, lamb or chicken that resulted in the confiscation of 94,000 metric tons of frozen meat.