Minister Han Changfu met with Brazilian Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply Blairo Maggi and South African Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Senzeni Zokwana on the sidelines of the 7th Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Agriculture and Agrarian Development in Nanjing, China on the afternoon of 16 June 2017. Minister Han exchanged views with his counterparts respectively on strengthening bilateral agricultural cooperation.
In meeting with Mr. Maggi, Minister Han spoke highly of the achievements in China-Brazil agricultural cooperation featuring constantly improved cooperation mechanism, rapidly growing agricultural trade, and fruitful agricultural investment cooperation. He suggested that the two sides deepen bilateral agricultural cooperation and improve agricultural trade and investment, and encouraged enterprises and scientific institutions of both sides to jointly establish agricultural demonstration parks and facilitate research and exchanges of new technologies in crop breeding. He also said that agricultural academies and research institutes of both countries should expand their cooperation areas, pledging his support to Chinese enterprises specialized in bio-technologies to launch cooperation projects in Brazil.
In meeting with Mr. Zokwana, Minister Han made positive remarks on the establishment of the aquaculture demonstration center in South Africa with China's assistance. He suggested that the two sides accelerate the implementation of the 10 major China-Africa cooperation plans proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2015 and sign the agricultural cooperation action plan between the two agricultural ministries at an appropriate time to boost agricultural trade and investment. He noted that China and South Africa enjoy great potential and broad prospects for cooperation in areas of aquaculture, distant fisheries, livestock and veterinary services, agricultural machinery and agrochemicals control.
Mr. Maggi and Mr. Zokwana congratulated China on successfully hosting the 7th Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Agriculture and Agrarian Development. They highly appreciated China's contribution to advancing BRICS agricultural cooperation and world agricultural development and expressed their willingness to expand cooperation with the Chinese side in agro-processing, agricultural scientific research, as well as trade and investment.
At the meeting, China and South Africa reached consensus on the proper arrangement of Chinese fishing boats passing through South Africa waters, and agreed to hold the working group meeting on bilateral agricultural cooperation in South Africa in 2017.