Interview: China-CEEC agricultural cooperation highly promising

Agricultural cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) is highly promising, and team play is the key to success, an official told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Vasil Gelev, Executive Director of the Association for the Promotion of Agricultural Cooperation between China and the Central and Eastern European Countries (APACCCEEC) said that there is a demand in China for agricultural products from CEEC, and CEEC have the opportunity to provide Chinese consumers with the necessary quantity of products with the required quality.

At the same time, CEEC are hungry for Chinese investment in agriculture, Gelev said on the eve of the fourth leaders' meeting of China and the 16 CEEC that will be held in China's Suzhou city from Nov. 24 to 25.

Strengthening contacts and coordination between the parties involved, with the team play as a key element, is the right way to success, Gelev said.

That is why, APACCCEEC was established at intergovernmental level this June to coordinate the activities of the ministries on the one hand, and the businesses on the other hand, Gelev said.

To facilitate business contacts between real business subjects in China and CEEC, and attract significant investment by providing Chinese investors with summarized, easily accessible and updated information, his association is in the process of creating a unified database, Gelev said.

Meanwhile, with the assistance of the APACCCEEC, a Bulgarian Pavilion was established in October in China's Hangzhou Cross-Border E-Commerce Pilot Zone. Gelev expects that other CEEC will also create their own national pavilions.

"I believe that this will strengthen our presence on the Chinese market because national pavilions are peculiar marketing incubators," Gelev said.

Answering a question about the bilateral Bulgarian-Chinese cooperation in the field of agriculture in particular, Gelev called it "very promising."

"We hope, of course, together with our Chinese partners, to deepen our cooperation, attract more major Chinese investments, but also be able to find the realization of quality Bulgarian products on the Chinese market," he said.

So far, there are three major Chinese investments in Bulgarian agriculture, in three different areas including production of maize grain, cultivation of fresh fruits and vegetables, and food-processing industry, Gelev said.

As regards the Bulgarian agricultural products, there is a demand in China for milk and dairy products, fresh fruit and vegetables, tobacco, wine, rose oil and all other oilseeds, he said.

In fact, Bulgarian producers are extremely small, and they can feed a part of a small neighborhood of Beijing, but this is not the most important, Gelev said.

"The most important is the prospect that the Chinese market gives us, namely sustainable development, attraction of investment, and expansion of the production capacities," Gelev said.

In view of the need to meet the high consumer demand in China, Bulgarian producers should look for various forms of association, he added. Endit