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Updated: 2007-06-28 11:20

The famed green food industry of Heilongjiang Province reaped a bountiful harvest at the 18th China Harbin International Fair for Trade and Economic Cooperation (Harbin Fair), with the inking of 16 project deals involving a total investment of 6.86 billion yuan.

The green food sector is developing into yet another economic mainstay for this Northeast China province, said provincial agricultural officials. Heilongjiang was among the first provinces in the country to begin the development of green food plantation.

With its fertile land and high level of agricultural mechanization, the province is one of the nation's most important grain production bases and is now focusing much of its attention on green food, which brings with it huge added value and sells well in both the domestic and international markets.

Sun Jingfeng, deputy director of a leading group in charge of the green food industry under the Heilongjiang Provincial Agricultural Committee, said that the province's green food output reached 18.36 million tons last year, almost quadruple that in 2000, and posted a revenue of 47.6 billion yuan, six times that earned in 2000.

The province now tops the country in terms of plantation acreage, output and economic gain.

"Green food industry has already become the sixth backbone industry for Heilongjiang, following petrochemicals, equipment manufacture, pharmaceuticals, energy and forestry," said Sun.

The plantation area of green food in the province has at present reached 3.12 million hectares - nearly one-third of all arable land in the province.

Further, a large number of farms have been labeled national standard green food parks, he added.

The number of green food companies had tripled that in the year 2000 to reach 403 by the end of last year. Of these, 46 firms earn annual revenue worth 100 million yuan each.

More products are gaining national approval to be labeled green or organic food, with their number rising to 1,122 last year, a year-on-year increase of 6.5 percent.

The province has set itself the ambitious goal of becoming a world green food giant, and plans to have all its farm yield pass the pesticide inspection standard by the end of this year, said Sun.

"This means that the pesticide residue in Heilongjiang's agri-products will pass the inspection and pose no harm to the human body," he explained.

Sun expects the outbound sale of green food to exceed 3.2 million tons and earn a revenue of more than 9 billion yuan in the first six months of this year.

"Our main overseas markets are the neighboring country of Russia, the Republic of Korea and Southeast Asian countries," he said.

Sun said that the province needs to do more to tap the European and North American markets, which are more lucrative but also have much higher entrance standards.

At the ongoing the 18th China Harbin International Fair for Trade and Economic Cooperation, green food booths remained a hotspot for thousands of visitors from around the world.

Nearly one-third of the exhibition booths were those of green food companies, Sun noted.