(Focus on the China-ASEAN Expo) How can China-ASEAN stabilize the food supply chain under a quarter of the global population epidemic?
China News Service, Nanning, September 11 (Huang Lingyan) The new crown pneumonia epidemic continues to spread, and natural disasters occur frequently, which has severely affected the global agricultural production and circulation. China and the ASEAN region gather a quarter of the world‘s population, and food security is of concern to countries in the region. The 18th China-ASEAN Expo and the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit were held in Nanning from September 10th to 13th. The China-ASEAN Agricultural Cooperation Forum under the framework focused on food topics and discussed stabilizing the regional agricultural product supply chain.
ASEAN is an important production and supply area for crops in the Asia-Pacific region. Ana Abicera, the Agricultural Counselor of the Philippine Embassy in China, said that the impact of the epidemic on agriculture in the region is mainly reflected in the interruption of the food supply chain, labor shortages, deteriorating working conditions, and fluctuations in the price of food and agricultural products, which affects the cost. The daily life of thousands of people.
“The Philippines has formulated a series of policies such as the rice procurement fund and the corn income increase plan to increase the level of food self-sufficiency.” Anna said, but to build a food industry chain that is more capable of resisting natural disasters, African swine fever and other animal diseases, ASEAN is needed. Strengthen cooperation with China to jointly improve the resilience of the food supply chain to realize the common vision of ensuring food security.
Facing the challenge of the epidemic, ASEAN countries attach great importance to cooperation with China in deepening agricultural technology innovation, reducing agricultural trade restrictions, and digital agriculture.
Haja Masliana, Acting Director of the Agriculture Bureau of the Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism of Brunei, said that thanks to China’s continuous assistance in hybrid rice technology and seed resources, Brunei has increased rice productivity. The country’s agricultural sector hopes to further cooperate with China Longping Hi-Tech to discover new high-yielding varieties, increase rice production in a significant way, and expand the cooperation areas to other crop production and commodity exports.
The first secretary of the Malaysian Embassy in China said that Malaysia and China are expanding bilateral agricultural cooperation. For example, China’s move to allow Malaysia’s shelled durian to be exported to China has boosted the confidence of growers in the country. In particular, Malaysia and China should strengthen cooperation in agricultural technology and research and development, promote the sharing of knowledge and experience on food and food safety, and promote the dissemination of innovative technologies that help improve agricultural productivity and efficiency. The advantages of processing at the ports of “Two-State Double Park” in the Malaysia-China Kuantan and China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Parks should also be brought into full play in the grain industry chain.
Du Nanzhong, Consul General of the Consulate General of Vietnam in Nanning, stated that Vietnam’s agricultural and forestry products exports to China account for a large share. Against the background that the epidemic may continue for a long time and there are unpredictable factors in the world economy, China and ASEAN need solutions to ensure the sustainable transportation of agricultural products and avoid trade interruptions. Shortening the risk assessment time of open markets, introducing digital technology to reduce administrative procedures, and increasing transparency will help improve the efficiency of the agricultural and forestry supply chain and promote the participation of regional agricultural products in the global value chain.
Currently, China has signed more than 30 bilateral agricultural cooperation agreements with ASEAN countries, and established the working mechanism of the Joint Agricultural Committee with 8 of them.
Li Zhiping, deputy director of the Foreign Economic Cooperation Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China, said that China will implement agricultural cooperation projects with ASEAN countries, continue to send experts to ASEAN, and focus on knowledge sharing on food security, post-harvest loss reduction, and standardized agricultural production, and cultivate compound transnational agriculture. Management talents. China has accumulated certain experience in digital agriculture and is willing to work with ASEAN countries to develop a digital supply chain network through e-commerce platforms to broaden agricultural product sales channels.
China will rely on the support of the Asian Cooperation Fund to explore policies such as customs clearance of agricultural products, intensive processing and services of imported agricultural products abroad, and jointly improve the well-being of people of all countries. (over)