Agricultural fair opens in Changchun

The ninth China International Agricultural and Food Fair opened Wednesday in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province, underscoring the country's efforts to ramp up agricultural production and trade in the wake of the deadliest floods in a decade.

The 10-day fair attracted more than 600 agricultural enterprises from home and abroad to participate and over 40 projects were expected to be signed during the 10 days.

The fair's organizing committee said it expected the fair would further boost growth in the province's agricultural sector.

Jilin is one of the most important commodity grain bases in China. However, recent flooding, which affected 1.25 million hectares of crops as of Aug. 10, raised public expectations of higher food prices during the second half of the year.

"Such a large fair will help boost farmers' enthusiasm about agricultural production and ease consumers' expectations of a hike in food prices," Zhang Zhenghe, professor with China Agricultural University said.

The agricultural trade and investment promotional event was jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Jilin provincial government and Changchun municipal government.

Source:Xinhua