Feature: Chinese premier visits Irish cow farm in Shannon

SHANNON, Ireland, May 17 -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Sunday visited a cow farm in the Irish town of Shannon in a show of his strong interest in boosting bilateral agricultural cooperation.

Upon their arrival, Li and his wife, Prof. Cheng Hong, were greeted by Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny and his wife, Fionnuala O'Kelly, at the entrance of Garvey's Farmhouse, a typical Irish family-run cow farm.

With great interest, Li visited the cow farm and enquired in detail about the various operations at the 107-hectare farm, such as cow-raising, agro-product processing and quality management and monitoring.

The owners of the farm, the Garveys, served home-made bread, cheese and milk when the two leaders and their wives sat down with others and chatted for a while.

"Ireland boasts a developed agricultural and husbandry industry, with well-established service standards and advanced managerial and technical expertise," Li said.

China, as a country with a large agricultural industry, is actively shifting its mode of agricultural development and comprehensively advancing agricultural modernization, he added.

The premier pointed out that with their living standards steadily on the rise, the Chinese people's demand and expectations for food are growing ever higher in terms of variety, quality and safety.

Noting that China has become Ireland's fastest-growing agro-product export market, Li said, the two countries enjoy a strong complementarity and a bright future in agricultural and husbandry cooperation.

He suggested that the two sides further tap into their cooperation potential and bring more benefits to the two peoples.

The Chinese premier arrived in Shannon earlier in the day for a transit visit to Ireland before heading to Latin America for an official visit to Brazil, Columbia, Peru and Chile, his first to the region since he assumed premiership in 2013.