Quality inspection officials from nine southern Chinese provinces pledged on Friday to cooperate in the supervision of food exports and their processing factories.

Officials from the export-oriented provinces agreed to cooperate in the supervision of the raw materials for exported food products, farm produce, pet food and as well as in food safety testing technologies.

Last year, the nine southern provinces exported US$5 billion worth of farm produce, accounting for one sixth of the country's total.

China's exported food products have raised safety concerns some countries following a series of alleged or confirmed quality issues.

In May, China's quality control watchdog confirmed two domestic companies had exported melamine-contaminated wheat gluten and rice protein blamed for the deaths of dogs and cats in the United States.

(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2007)