The expansion of farming products export will be a major target in China's foreign trade development in the future, said Vice-Minister of Commerce Yu Guangzhou Friday in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province.

The country will strive to boost its annual export of farming products to at least US$30 billion in next four or five years, Yu said he expects the figure to reach or exceed US$40 billion in 2013.

Yu acknowledged that the immediate situation for the country's agricultural export is not optimistic.

In the first eight months of 2004, the country saw exports of US$14.02 billion in its farming sector. Though the figure rose 9.3 percent from the previous year, it was 26.4 percentage points lower than the country's average export growth in the period.

The outbreak of bird flu earlier this year was partly blamed for the slow growth of agricultural exports.

The country saw trade deficit in the farming sector for eight consecutive months of this year. The deficit volume was US$5.18 billion.

China will focus its agricultural exports on the aquatic, stockbreeding and poultry raising sectors in the future, Yu said.

The Ministry of Commerce will beef up management on farming products' quality and safety to sharpen the competitive edge of the country's agricultural exports in the international market.

(Xinhua News Agency October 16, 2004)