China issues 1st guide on agricultural export
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-10-16 09:51

Yu Guangzhou, Vice-Minister of Commerce, said that the guide was issued to provide agricultural products exporters information on the international market.

The vice minister added that most Chinese farming products exporters are new hands in exportation and are not well informed about the international market and are therefore at a disadvantage.

Noting that the world market of farming products is constantly changing due to frequent adjustments of international trade policies, Yu said timely and smooth access to information on worldagricultural production and market becomes crucial for exporters' survival and success in international competition.

"We hope the guide can help solve the problem of information shortage to Chinese exporters of farming products," Yu said.

The guide issued Friday are on the markets in Japan, the Republic of Korea, France and Netherlands. Exporters can get the guide book for free.

The compiling work on the markets of the United States, the European Union and some other emerging markets is under way, Yu said.

The expansion of farming products export will be a major target in China's foreign trade development in the future, said Vice-Minister of Commerce Yu Guangzhou Friday in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province.

The country will strive to boost its annual export of farming products to at least US$30 billion in next four or five years, Yu said he expects the figure to reach or exceed US$40 billion in 2013.

Yu acknowledged that the immediate situation for the country's agricultural export is not optimistic.

In the first eight months of 2004, the country saw exports of US$14.02 billion  in its farming sector. Though the figure rose 9.3 percent from the previous year, it was 26.4 percentage points lower than the country's average export growth in the period.

The outbreak of bird flu earlier this year was partly blamed for the slow growth of agricultural exports.

The country saw trade deficit in the farming sector for eight consecutive months of this year. The deficit volume was US$5.18 billion.

China will focus its agricultural exports on the aquatic, stockbreeding and poultry rasing sectors in the future, Yu said.

The Ministry of Commerce will beef up management on farming products' quality and safety to sharpen the competitive edge of the country's agricultural exports in the international market.

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