China's exports of farm products rose 23 percent year on year to 19.6 billion US dollars in the first nine months of 2005, said sources with a national conference on agricultural and rural economic development held here Friday.

China's agricultural industry has maintained steady growth over the past years and foreign trade in farm products has kept fast growth, said Jiang Zhenghua, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC).

Addressing the two-day national conference on the agricultural and the rural economic situation, Jiang said China's imports of farm products in the first three quarters stood at 21.4 billion US dollars, keeping balance with the figure of the same period last year.

In 2004, the imports and exports of farm products totaled 51.4 billion US dollars, up 84 percent over the figure in 2001.

While exports hit 23.4 billion US dollars, up 45.6 percent, and imports witnessed a 1.4-fold increase to hit 28 billion US dollars.

"The fast rise of import and export in farm products is a reflection of the country's growing economic strength and increasing international influence," Jiang noted.

However, China's entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 has also exerted pressure on some domestic sectors, especially those enterprises producing crude rubber and edible oil, he said.

For example, China's imports of edible oil soared to 6.76 million tons in 2004 from 1.67 million tons in 2001.

Some of China's farm products are less competitive in the international market, due to small production scale, decreasing arable land and limited water resources, he added.

He called for efforts to strengthen construction of infrastructure, readjust product mix and transform growth mode in order to build a modern agricultural industry based on scientific and technological progress.

Source: Xinhua