Statistics from the Shandong commercial department released on April 27 shows the foreign trade in Shandong province hit $53.8 billion in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 35.4 percent.

Agriculture contributes much to this trade with around $3.6 billion worth of farm produce sent overseas in the first three months, an increase of 42.8 percent over the same period of last year.

To increase the competitiveness of its agricultural exports, Shandong has been working on increasing the amount of land devoted to higher-quality and safer produce recently years, according to Cai Limin, vice governor of Shandong.

By the end of last year, Shandong had 526,000 hectares of standard planting area, 1,849 standard farms and 89,300 hectares of standard area for sea food.

Shandong makes quality its top priority in these standard areas. Because of this, the qualified rate of outbound agricultural produce has stood at over 99.5 percent for three consecutive years; last year the qualified rate reached 99.93 percent.

Over $13.9 billion worth of farm produce was sold overseas last year, making Shandong the largest ag-exporter in China.

By Zhao Ruixue (China Daily Shandong Bureau)

Editor: Li Jing