The Ministry of Agroindustry, which is headed by Ricardo Buryaile, through the Secretary of Agroindustrial Markets, Marisa Bircher, began a tour of the People's Republic of China, in order to advance the issues of the bilateral agribusiness agenda, in preparation for the official visit of President Mauricio Macri on May 14.
Bircher said that "our country's food production potential and the opportunity to work together to expand and diversify our exportable supply to China is fundamental to ensuring food security in a country with 1.3 billion Inhabitants and an increasing demand for higher quality and added value products."
In 2016 Argentina was the 7th food supplier in China with US $ 4.212 million and a market share of 3.49%, according to Chinese statistics.
The Secretary held a meeting with Li Yuanping, the Deputy Minister of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), with whom he reviewed the intense bilateral agenda of the sanitary and phytosanitary negotiations so that Argentine agroindustrial products can gain access to China. In this regard, progress was made in the agreement to renew the Work Plan 2017-2019 between the two Ministries, which will guide technical cooperation and access work in the coming years. In addition, they agreed to sign the protocol to initiate exports of table grapes during the presidential visit, and made significant progress in the negotiation so that blueberries and cherries, among other products, gain access to China.
The Secretary and the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Zhang Zhongqiu, headed the 3rd Meeting of the Argentine-China Agricultural Committee, which agreed to renew the 2017-2022 Plan of Action on agricultural cooperation between the two ministries. The guidelines for cooperation on topics where great progress has been achieved in recent years were renewed, such as biotechnology, seeds, scientific and technical cooperation, fisheries and aquaculture, dairy, animal health, trade and agricultural investment, International forums; and new lines of work were included in equine breeding, bio-energy, agrochemicals and plant protection.
Bircher also held meetings with the company Alibaba, to establish a mechanism to promote the marketing of Argentine foods in the online sales platform in China; and with the Sinograin and Cofco companies to promote fruit trade, among others.
Source: Agroindustria.gob.ar
