Altogether 84 foreign firms have participated in the ongoing 2002 International Agriculture and Food Fair in Changchun, capital of the northeastern Jilin Province, said a source from the organizing committee.

The figure is nine times the total of the two previous fairs, held respectively in 2000 and 2001. Among them are big-name international companies such as Netafim, a leading Israeli manufacturer of modern irrigation equipment, and Syngenta, a Swiss producer of antiseptics and herbicides whose annual sales in China have exceeded 100 million US dollars in recent years.

"This is the first time for us to attend the fair," said Bao Zhenghe, a Syngenta representative for China business, "We value the vast market here."

Netafim has taken over 70 percent of the world's irrigation equipment market, but its annual sales in China are only around 20million US dollars.

The ongoing agricultural reforms in northeast China, which aim to reduce the production of corn, rice and other high-yield but low-value grains and increase the acreage of cash crops, have provided unprecedented opportunities for Netafim to sell more irrigation equipment in this region, said the company's project manager Xie Guang.

"The promotion of our products is a difficult and time-consuming process," he said, "but I don't think any of the world's leading agricultural firms can afford to neglect this huge market."

In addition to quality seeds, pesticides and farming equipment, experts here believe that foreign companies will bring state-of-the-art technologies and ideas to the local farmers, who will have more choices in their agricultural production.

The crescent-shaped black earth belt, covering parts of northeastern Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces, is the most fertile land in China.

Local agronomists say that more than 7 million hectares of the 10-million-hectare black earth belt have been developed into the largest commodity grain production base in the country, from which the grain output accounts for more than 60 percent of the two provinces' total.

(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2002)