Agricultural trades between China, CEEC on the rise

Li attended the Sixth China-CEEC Economic and Trade Forum held Saturday in Riga, Latvia, where he said China would import CEEC quality agricultural and industrial products, while calling for easier access of Chinese products and businesses to the CEEC market.

By promoting interconnectivity, China and CEEC have reshaped their trade structure and scaled up their trade volume. Data shows that since inception in 2011 the number of China-Europe freight train lines has grown to 39. Sixteen Chinese cities operate cargo trains to about a dozen European cities on a regular basis.

Agricultural product trade between China and CEEC surged to 1.13 billion U.S. dollars in 2015, 2.5 times the volume in 2005.

Oskars Mickevics, who runs a honey business in Latvia, is planning to seek his chances on the Chinese mainland, eyeing the huge market.

"Our honey products are popular in Taiwan, as they include vitamins and other kinds of nutrition," he says.

Mickevics is confident about the market potential of the products. He said that unlike the honey in China where bees collect nectar from a single flower, his bees forage multiple flowers, which ensures richer nutrition in honey products. However, the complicated application procedure for a sales permit in China has stood in his way.

"I hope the Belt and Road Initiative will simplify the application," he says.