Commissioner Phil Hogan will be visiting China in May 2018, final dates still to be confirmed, accompanied by a business delegation of senior representatives from the European agri-food sector. The purpose of this visit is facilitating exchange and agreements between European and Chinese businesses active in the agri-food sector, while building on and profiting from existing presence of European agri-food products on the Chinese market. China was the second largest importer of EU agricultural and processed agricultural products in 2016, receiving 8.7% of all EU agricultural exports.

An important element of the visit to China will be the opening of the SIAL 2018 fair in Shanghai, where the EU will be the Region of Honour with its own pavilion, focused on activities complementing EU Member States' presence at the fair. SIAL China is Asia's largest food innovation exhibition, its 2016 edition attracted 101 134 visitors and 3200 exhibitors from 67 countries. It is expected that 25 EU Member States will be represented by national pavilions in the 2018 edition

The objective is to give the opportunity to the accompanying European producers to meet not only potential partners from the local market but also representatives of the agri-food sector from the whole continent. The programme of activities will include seminars on the characteristics of the local market and the consumer trends, including e-commerce, distribution channels, retail visits, networking opportunities for B2B and visit to SIAL. The programme of activities for the business delegates will take place in Shanghai from 14-17 May, and will be followed by a visit to Shenzhen from 18-19 May 2018. The costs for flights and hotels have to be covered by participants but all business events from the official programme will be offered free of charge.

The registration for interested applicants is open now, deadline to apply 07.02.2018.