Chinese agri firms search Luzon for business partners

Fifteen private firms from mainland China are in the country looking for investment partners in the agriculture sector, unmindful of the Philippines’ ongoing diplomatic spat with the Chinese government. The Chinese delegation is in the country until Sunday and will tour local farms and manufacturing sites in Luzon. The China-Philippines Agricultural Trade and Investment Promotion Forum said the Chinese trade mission “is an effort of the Chinese government but the companies involve are all from the private sector. “China has a fast increasing population. Its lands are not enough to sustain their agricultural needs. They find it logical to invest here," the forum’s president, Antonio Tiu, said Thursday. "We're very much interested to invest in the Philippines. I'm sure we can make good partners in the agriculture business," said Lu Zihu, deputy director of the Committee on Rural Economy of Liaoning Province in northeastern China. AgriNurture, where Tiu is president, is the first Filipino agriculture company to tie up with the Beidahung Group of Companies, one of the firms represented in the business delegation from China. Tiu said the Chinese firms have diverse operations in vegetable, fruits and grains farming to food preparation, food production, agriculture equipment and biotechnology. In the trade mission are officials of Liayong Sansen Grain Trade Co. Ltd., Lingyuan Municipal Dongyuan Agricultural Trade Science and Technology Development Co. Ltd., Teing Eastern-Growing Food Company, and Tieling Chuanshum Food Co. Ltd. Also represented in the trade mission are Changtu County Furfural Factory, Liaoning Zhongxin Biology Science-Tch Co. Ltd., Kiyan Yingde Poultry Products Co. Ltd., Shanxi Province Datong County Day Lily Co., and Linyi Xiang Hui Food Co. Ltd. Shanxi Aoer Pharmaceutical Corp. Ltd., Zhong Yuan Agriculture Technology Development Co. Ltd., Datong Minfeng Agriculture Scientific Technology Co., and Shengyang Aoda Electric Appliances Corp. Ltd also sent officials to look for Filipino partners. — ELR/VS, GMA News