Both the European Union and China face challenges on how to shape their future policies, how to cooperate more effectively and how to encourage young people to become farmers. The ongoing EU-China young farmer exchange programme, moves into its latest phase on 16 April with a first group of young Chinese farmers arriving to visit their European counterparts. The first groups of young farmers from the EU have already visited China and reported back on their experiences there.
The Chinese market for agri-food products is one of the world's largest, and is getting larger every year, fuelled by a growing middle class population that has a taste for European food and drink products, often as a result of their international travels. Two of the biggest traders in the world, China is the EU's second-biggest destination for agri-food products after the US (9% of EU exports). Many EU key agri-food products such as wine, pork, spirit or dairy products find their way to Chinese markets – dairy products even record exports up to 30% in 2017.
Following up on his visit in 2016, Commissioner Phil Hogan will visit China in May 2018, accompanied by a business delegation of senior representatives from the European agri-food sector. The purpose of the visit is to bring together European and Chinese businesses active in the agri-food sector with a view to potential new agreements, as well as to highlight the existing presence of European agri-food procts on the Chinese market.
More information
- Agriculture: trade and international policy analysis
- EU-China trade
- Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (funding for young farmers' exchange programme)
- China-EU international trade in goods statistics
- EU promotion policy
