China's Grass Products Industry Has Great PotentialExperts said that China's fledging grass industry has great scope for potential.They said the demand for grass products on both Chinese and international markets have been rising rapidly in recent years. Statistics show that China's demand for clover stands at 3 million to 5 million tons annually, and the demand on the international market is 5 million tons. China's demand for lawn and grass seeds has increased by 20 percent annually. China is abundant in grass resources and has an over 2,000-year- old history of planting clover. At present, the country has 300 million hectares of natural pastures and 12 million hectares of planted pastures. The increasing demand for beef and mutton in China in recent years is one of the factors that are expected to stimulate China's grass industry. China's agricultural departments plan to build 24 quality forage grass production bases throughout the country, and some local governments have worked out preferential policies encouraging the development of the industry. A dozen research institutes including Gansu Agricultural University and the Gansu Grassland Ecological Research Institute have established a Grass Industry Science and Technology Research Center. China now has thousands of grass industrial companies. Some of them have cooperated with foreign counterparts to export products. The World Bank has granted a 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) loan for Longsheng Grass Industry Co. Ltd in Gansu Province to develop 6,600 hectares of alfalfa. Statistics show that north China's Shanxi Province alone exported more than 1,000 tons of grass products to the Republic of Korea and Japan last year. |
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