NEW DELHI: Seeking greater cooperation in agriculture trade, India today asked neighbouring China to import a wide range of items from it such as rice, sugar, maize and dried grapes.
Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh met his Chinese counterpart Qui Dongyu on the sidelines of BRICS agri-meet here and asked China to consider importing these products from India.
“I am looking forward for more and more cooperation in agriculture and allied sectors between the two countries leading to further strengthening of bilateral relations,” Singh said in a statement.
He said China can explore the possibility of importing agricultural items including live plants, coconut, cashew nuts, banana, pepper, shorghum, coconut oil, oil cake, which India has a potential to export.
Singh also expressed satisfaction over the progress made in finalising a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with China on sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) issues
He said the MoU is “inching towards finality”.
In 2015-16, India’s export to China stood at USD 875.13 million, while imports were at USD 284.18 million.
India exports agri-items such as fish, prawns, shrimp, cotton and castor oil, and imports kidney beans, apples, pears and bamboos.