Agri trade shines in China-ASEAN economic ties

Nguyen Sa Sa, a Vietnamese, was promoting the farm produce she brought from her own country to clients at the on-going China-Asean Expo in Nanning, capital of South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Together with her Chinese husband, Nguyen Sa Sa was inviting customers to taste the high-quality coffee and tea at the annual China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit.

"Given that the Vietnamese market is limited and both the European and US economies are sluggish, we turned our eyes to China, which is a fastly-growing market," said Nguyen, who once studied in Guangxi and speaks Chinese. "We see more opportunities and hope here," she said.

Trade of agricultural products between the two sides expanded amid tariff reductions and the establishment of a free trade zone in 2010.

China's Assistant Minister of Commerce Qiu Hong said that the country has accumulatively reduced 50 billion yuan ($7.9 billion) of tariffs on imports from the ASEAN as of the end of August this year.

China's agricultural product imports from the ASEAN hit $15 billion in 2011, which accounted for 15.1 percent of the nation's farm produce imports.

Meanwhile, it exported nearly $10 billion of agricultural products to the ASEAN, accounting for 16.3 percent of its total farm produce exports, said Zhu Baocheng, a senior official at the Ministry of Agriculture.

So far, the ASEAN has become China's second largest trading partner of agricultural goods, Zhu said.

"We have brought the best Fuji apples, high-quality Chinese dates and pears here. We wish to promote the products to our ASEAN friends," said Sun Junwei, deputy secretary of Yanshuiguan Township in the city of Yan'an in northwest China's Shaanxi province.

A representative from the ASEAN Secretariat said that China has become the largest export market for Thailand fruits. Fruit farmers in Thailand are also benefiting from the rising exports, according to the representative.

Meanwhile, tropical fruits such as durian, longan, and pitaya from the ASEAN complement China's apples, pears, organges and tangerines.

At this year's event, China and the ASEAN are also seeking cooperation in agricultural technologies by setting up a demonstration zone for seeds, machinery, and fertilizers.

According to experts attending the summit, bilateral agricultural cooperation is playing an increasingly important role in consolidating China-ASEAN ties. They said that China and the ASEAN can together build a coordinated mechanism to better cope with price fluctuations of global food and farm products.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping said earlier Friday that China is ready to establish all-dimensional, in-depth and strategic connectivity with the ASEAN.