The Agricultural Trade Center of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development arranged for 7 Chinese fruit companies to visit India in an effort to advance business relations between China and India, as well as to develop the fruit trade. The economic attache of the Indian embassy in China encouraged and assisted the delegation in their visit to India. The delegations convened in the International Center of New Delhi on November 27th, 2018, for the China-India Fruits Business Seminar.
The business seminar was hosted by the Association for India-China Economic and Cultural Promotion. More than 40 Indian representatives from 16 fruit importers and trade associations participated, while representatives from 4 Chinese fruit companies made speeches. One of them was a Chinese pear exporter representative of the Hebei Tianbo fruit industry. The representative provided a thorough introduction to the market conditions of Chinese pear export to China. The representatives of the Indian Import Association and fruit importers also shared their experience of doing business with China. The participating Indian retailers and Chinese companies eagerly exchanged information. All participants look forward to a resumed fruit trade between China and India.
The government of Jharkhand invited the delegation to visit its capital Ranchi on November 29th and 30th to participate in the "2018 Global Agricultural Industry and Food Products Summit Meeting". This proposal received an enthusiastic response from the organizing committee of the Chinese delegation. The committee arranged for a display during the summit meeting, as well as a special promotion of "partner country discussion" and "China themed activities".
China is a partner in this summit meeting and dispatched a representative, the economic attache of the Chinese embassy in India, Li Baijun, to deliver a speech at the "partner country discussion". Delegate Li introduced the rapid developments in China-India relations and the state of China-India trade cooperation to the participants of the summit meeting. The delegate also raised the issue of China and India as two of the largest developing countries in the world, and emphasized the great potential of cooperation between China and India in the domain of agricultural industry. The delegate also expressed hope that the summit meeting would provide the opportunity to actively explore new forms of cooperation in this domain, and advance agricultural trade between the two countries, and trade in fruit in particular.
Deputy director Song Juguo of the Agricultural Trade Center of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development delivered a speech as part of the "China themed activities" in front of more than 200 participants. He introduced to them the achievements in Chinese agriculture in the 40 years since the economic reforms of the late 1970's and 1980's, as well as achievements in Chinese agricultural trade and future dreams for China-India agricultural trade relations. Two apple companies from Shandong and one pear company from Hebei shared their experience with developing fruit trade relations between China and India in recent years, as well as the conditions of developments in China's fruit industry.
The Chinese companies also drew attention in this summit meeting with meticulously designed posters and carefully folded lanterns with Chinese characteristics. Several companies brought representative products such as Shanxi apples and Hebei pears that attracted crowds of traders and Indian delegates who looked and sampled them. The Jharkhand government paid much attention to the Chinese delegation. High government officials welcomed the Chinese delegation, they tasted Chinese apples and pears, praised the excellent flavor of Chinese fruit.
The two-day summit meeting was crowded from beginning to end. The participants continuously introduced the characteristics of Chinese apples and pears to an endless stream of visitors, who expressed a desire to purchase such fruit. Many people expressed their wish for closer cooperation and increased investment between China and India. Many journalists approached the Chinese company representatives for interviews that had already featured in the media by the second day of the meeting.
Agricultural trade is important for both China and India, and many leaders in both countries have called for renewed attention to this issue. This time Chinese companies visited India and used fruit to introduce Chinese agricultural products. They cultivated mutual trust and a deepened mutual cooperation.
