PARMA, Italy, May 6 -- China will play an increasingly important role in the global food challenge, an Italian official told Xinhua Tuesday during the ongoing international fair on food made in Italy named Cibus.

"China is a country that is facing food challenges with much higher concern than us," the chairman of the European Parliament's agriculture committee Paolo De Castro said.

De Castro stressed that food-related problems at the global level would be "dramatic" in the next few years both for developed and developing economies.

Each country, he highlighted, needed to collaborate with others in "setting common rules as well as increasing awareness" on central issues including "resource management, imbalances of agriculture and food distribution, and land grabbing."

During the four-day fair that kicked off in the northern city of Parma on Monday, a "Milan protocol" was launched that enshrined the principle of international coordinated action to address sustainability of the global food system.

De Castro wished the protocol would become a "manifesto" of the upcoming Expo Milano 2015, which is dedicated to nutrition, food security and sustainable development.

China will be one of the fundamental investors at the expo with one national pavilion and two corporate pavilions.