Agriculture, China, EU – Baltic States, Forum, Legislation, Lithuania, Markets and Companies

Photo: zum.lrv.lt

This is provided for in the Vilnius Declaration adopted after Friday's meeting of agriculture ministers within the 16+1 framework.

"We agreed that cooperation between China and Central and Eastern Europe countries should continue and cover all levels," Surplys said at a news conference.

"We have to think very actively about science and agriculture cooperation and about how to deliver our products to each other's markets as quickly as possible," he said. 

Chinese Agriculture Minister Han Changfu called on Lithuanian businesses to advertise their products directly to the Chinese and thus promote exports to China. 

Lithuania's exports of agricultural and food products, mostly cheese and curd, frozen blueberries, concentrated milk and cream, and alcoholic beverages, to China last year grew by 46 percent to 8 million euros. China ranked 45th out of Lithuania's 143 export partners.

The so-called 16+1 was established more than five years ago as China's initiative to boost cooperation with 16 CEE countries, including Lithuania and another 10 EU member states.

Estonia's Minister of Rural Affairs Tarmo Tamm and Chinese Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu during their meeting in Vilnius discussed the Estonia-China operational program in agriculture for 2018-2022 and promotion of bilateral cooperation in trade.

"I regard deepening of bilateral relations between Estonia and China and continuation of the good trade partnership as important. For this, it's essential to meet regularly and exchange views," Tamm said according to a press release.

"Our aim is to offer China an even broader selection of Estonian food manufactured in a trustworthy manner," Tamm said. "Estonia and China have signed several protocols on food safety in recent years and the numbers of Estonian food products cleared for supply to the Chinese market is growing. China has high requirements when it comes to food safety. In order to understand the system and the requirements, it's important to stay in touch and improve mutal understanding on different levels," he said.

Tamm and the Chinese minister of agriculture last met in August 2017.

In January 2015, an operational program for the advancement of cooperation between Estonia and China in agriculture was signed.