The export turnover of China's agricultural products in 2003 increased on the figure for last year, thanks to standardized production, said Li Zhonghai, director of the State Standardization Commission.

Statistics show that the gross export turnover of China's agricultural products in the first 10 months this year amounted to US$16.5 billion, a year-on-year growth of 17 percent. The total export turnover of 2003 would be over US$20 billion, said Li.

After its entry into World Trade Organization (WTO), China promoted standardized agricultural production in all provinces and autonomous regions, integrating international standards into domestic agriculture, Li said.

Lai Tiansheng, director of Guangdong Quality and Technology Supervision Bureau, said that as China's major export province, Guangdong had founded a WTO information center, studying world technological standards and related laws. The province had established 40 state-level and 153 province-level agricultural standardized zones, improving the agricultural products' international competitiveness.

However, challenges to China's agricultural export still exist, Li said. In recent years, some developed countries raised import standards for agricultural products, which was a serious problem for China, he said.

Foreign agricultural products of high quality and at low prices would have impact on China's market, so measures have to be taken to intensify management of agricultural products, and to quickly improve their competitiveness in the world market, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 24)