The China Food & Livestock Import and Export Chamber is an industry organization representing China's foreign-trade-oriented enterprises in the fields of agriculture, forest, food, native products, husbandry, processing and trade.
Since its establishment 17 years ago, the chamber, following the motto of "serving the industry and members," has devoted itself to providing co-ordinating service and promoting foreign trade of agricultural products.
The year of 2005 was the sixth consecutive year of export growth of China's agricultural products. Meanwhile, the trade deficit of agricultural products fell sharply.
According to the Ministry of Commerce, the total import and export value of agricultural products amounted to US$55.83 billion, an increase of 9.3 per cent over the previous year. While export value was at US$27.18 billion, up 17.7 per cent; import value was US$28.65 billion, rising 2.4 per cent.
The trade deficit was reduced from US$4.88 billion in 2004 to US$1.47 billion in 2005, a decrease of 69.9 per cent.
To date, the chamber has become one of the largest food and agricultural industry organizations in China with best service means and superior promotion effects.
To help improve the export business of these enterprises, in recent years, the chamber has organized representatives from more than 1,000 enterprises to go to the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea and other countries in Europe and Southeast Asia to attend various international fairs, thus helping them contact new customers and develop new markets.
At present, Chinese agricultural products are being exported to 200 countries and regions and are highly acclaimed.
In 2006, the chamber will head the enterprises to attend more international fairs, including 30 fairs in more than 10 countries and regions in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. Emphasis will be given to the Paris International Food Exhibition, where Chinese exhibitors will cover over 1,000 square metres of exhibition space.
Presence at CECF
The chamber, under the request of the Ministry of Commerce, is also focussing on improving the level of enterprises and goods during the 99th Chinese Export Commodities Fair (CECF) held in Guangzhou.
The Guangzhou fair plays an important role in the development of foreign trade of agricultural products. Through the fair, thousands of enterprises were introduced to the international arena and got valuable first-hand information about products and markets, to help improve the quality of their products and promote development of the industry.
The 99th CECF is the prelude for the 2006 Autumn Guangzhou Fair, which will be the 100th session of the event.
At the 99th CECF, the industries of food, native products and livestock will have five exhibition areas including food, tea, carpet, leather and fur coats and native products. About 1,300 enterprises have ordered more than 2,000 exhibition booths, basically the same quantity and scale as the previous session.
The food and tea exhibition area moved to the Pazhou Exhibition Park of the CECF since the previous fair. To improve the display levels, a special decoration area and standard area have been set up for this exhibition. The chamber has worked with the China Foreign Trade Centre to choose the best proposals for decoration and display of exhibits.
The fair acts as a venue for trade and information exchange as well. The chamber will make full use of the fair to promote publicity of the chamber's website, providing a platform for trade and information exchange between its members.
The chamber will strive to implement the State's related strategies, including the Labour-Intensive Product Strategy and Quality-Brand International Competition Strategy, helping China become a large and globally competitive agricultural exporter. |
