China is looking to expand its export channels in global markets from traditional markets in the US, Brazil, Japan and South Korea.
Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, which borders Russia, will also establish 20 vegetable-growing bases to grow carrot, onion, tomato, sugarbeet, salad potato and colored sweet pepper in select counties and towns to develop border trade.
China's vegetable exports to traditional markets have been confronted with multiple pressures in recent years. Take garlic for instance. Brazil currently imposes anti-dumping duty of $0.78 per kilogram of Chinese garlic, while the United States has an anti-dumping tariff as high as 376 percent for the same product since 1995.
Both the European Union and Indonesia implement strict quota control on China's garlic exports. The state-run South Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corp even refused to approve the import of 2,200 metric tons of garlic shipped by Shandong exporters in January because of what they called quality issues, resulting in a loss of more than $1.59 million for the farmers.
Russia banned all import of fruits and vegetables from Europe and the U.S which has encouraged Chinese export to Russia. The Russian market demand is encouraging for China, and setting up this trade association will help China gain growth momentum said Link Guangming, vice-general manager of Shandong Shouguang Vegetable Trading Co. He expects sales to Russia this year to rise by 60% from last year to 2.1 billion yuan.
With a total export value of $12.5, China's vegetable exports amounted to 9.76 million tons in 2014.
