South-South cooperation yields fruits on agriculture

JINAN, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Production lines are rolling at the maximum speed at an agricultural technology company's workshop in east China's Shandong Province, to meet flourishing orders for tractors from the Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Taking pride in their close partnership with clients in these countries, Wang Shiguo, a marketing manager at Weichai Lovol Intelligent Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. in Weifang City, said the company saw its exports grow by over 60 percent in the first half of this year, and the upward trend is expected to continue.

In recent years, as trade between China and Latin America heats up, more and more high-quality products such as Argentine beef, Ecuadorian shrimp and Chilean cherries, have secured a growing share of the Chinese market.

At the third ministerial forum on agriculture between China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) that opened on Tuesday in Weifang, Han Jun, Party chief of China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said in a live video speech that over the past decade, China and CELAC have achieved fruitful results in their agricultural cooperation.

Focusing on cooperation and green development, the event has attracted 290 attendees, including 24 ministers or vice ministers, 13 ambassadors from 25 countries, and representatives of agricultural research institutes, enterprises and regional organizations.

Han noted that China has established agricultural cooperation mechanisms with 19 CELAC countries, and agricultural trade and economic cooperation have been expanding rapidly, with bilateral agricultural trade doubling to more than 81 billion U.S. dollars from 2014 to 2023.

Jean Felipe Celestino Gouhie, an agricultural counselor at the Brazilian embassy in China, praised the success of the agricultural cooperation between the two countries.

"In Brazil, many people believe that Brazil and China are good partners who trust and support each other," he said, adding that China, which imports soybeans, meat and other products from Brazil, is also playing an active role in the construction of agricultural infrastructure in Brazil.

Peng Tingjun, deputy director of the international cooperation department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said that China has so far signed free trade agreements with Peru, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Nicaragua, which have significantly facilitated economic and trade relations with these economies.

According to Peng, China's stock of direct investment in agriculture in Latin America stands at about 2 billion U.S. dollars, four times that of a decade ago, which has not only boosted local economic and social development but also contributed to safeguarding global food security.

As the South-South cooperation deepens, the scope of China-CELAC agricultural cooperation also continues to broaden.

During the forum, Bosco Martin Castillo Cruz, minister of agriculture, livestock and forestry of Nicaragua, took a keen interest in the tomato cultivation in Weifang City, and intended to return with some seeds for crossbreeding and other scientific research purposes.

Research institutes in China, the Latin American and Caribbean countries have also communicated on topics ranging from agricultural clean energy, soybean germplasm resources exchanges and cultivation to seed breeding of saline-alkali tolerant forage grass.

"These interactions have expanded the depth and breadth of South-South cooperation between China and CELAC," noted Xu Tiemin, vice mayor of Shouguang City, one of China's major vegetable production bases.