Agricultural cooperation between China and Central and Eastern Europe: Spices

Although the overall scale of agricultural product trade between China and the 17 Central and Eastern European countries is still small and concentrated, the agricultural products in which the two sides have comparative advantages are quite different and highly complementary. There is a lot of room for development in bilateral agricultural product trade.

In March 2020, at the request of Serbian President Vucic, China sent a team of medical experts to Serbia to help fight the new crown pneumonia epidemic. The medical team was greeted with the highest courtesy by Vucic's elbow at the airport, which quickly heated up Sino-Serbian relations, and Serbia became China's "old iron". In fact, not only Serbia, but also Central and Eastern European countries like Poland and Hungary have very friendly relations with China, and they have extensive cooperation in agriculture, technology, finance, and transportation. Today we briefly talk about the agricultural trade between China and Central and Eastern European countries.


What are the Central and Eastern European countries?

The Central and Eastern European countries often talked about are not geographical but diplomatic. In 2011, China renewed its cooperation with 16 countries in Central and Eastern Europe. On April 26, 2012, with the first China-CEEC Leaders’ Meeting held in Warsaw, Poland, the China-CEEC Cooperation (Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries) was officially launched.

There are currently 17 Central and Eastern European countries, including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.


What special agricultural products are there in Central and Eastern European countries?

Central and Eastern European countries have superior natural endowments and abound in a variety of characteristic agricultural products.

Bulgarian Roses: Bulgaria is the world-famous "country of roses", rich in more than 7000 kinds of roses, the flower yield is 500-750 kg/mu. Bulgarian rose is an important raw material for making natural fragrances, and it is also an indispensable raw material for the production of pharmaceuticals, tea, beauty, and cosmetics.

Romanian wine: Romania has been a major wine producer since ancient times. In 2019, its wine output was 410 million liters, ranking first in Central and Eastern European countries. Its wines are of high quality and unique craftsmanship, and are well-known internationally.

Greek olive oil: There are approximately 62 million olive trees in Greece, and olive oil is its most distinctive agricultural product. Greek olive oil is known for its excellent quality, with an annual output of about 300,000 to 400,000 tons, and more than 70% of its olive oil is ultra-pure olive oil.

Polish dairy products: Poland is the fourth largest producer of dairy products in the EU, with an annual milk production of more than 13 billion liters. In 2019, Poland exported 130 million U.S. dollars of dairy products to China, ranking first among countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

Czech beer: The Czech Republic is the country of origin of the world's most advanced hops (vanilla for brewing beer), with an annual per capita beer consumption of 137 liters. Czech beer production exceeded 20,000 kiloliters in 2017, and the export volume exceeded 4,000 kiloliters.

Lithuanian spices: Lithuania produces a variety of spices, including mustard seeds, horseradish, coriander, garlic, pepper, etc. Among them, pepper alone exported 49,000 kilograms to the world in 2018, with an output value of 400,000 US dollars.


Agricultural products trade between China and Central and Eastern European countries

In 2019, the total trade volume of agricultural products between China and 17 Central and Eastern European countries was US$1.46 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6.2%. Among them, China imported US$600 million from 17 countries, a year-on-year increase of 23.3%; exports to it were US$860 million, a year-on-year decrease of 3.3%; The surplus was US$260 million, a decrease of 36%. Poland accounted for the largest proportion of agricultural products trade between China and the 17 Central and Eastern European countries with 40.3%; followed by Lithuania, Greece, Czech Republic and Romania, accounting for 9.3%, 9.2%, 8.9% and 7.7% respectively. The total trade volume of the five countries is 1.1 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 75.74% of the trade with 17 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, and the proportions of the remaining countries are all below 5%. China mainly imports livestock products (44.7%), grains (9.3%) and beverages (9%) from 17 countries, and mainly exports aquatic products (20.5%) and vegetables (11.7%).

Although the overall scale of agricultural product trade between China and the 17 Central and Eastern European countries is still small and concentrated, the agricultural products in which the two sides have comparative advantages are quite different and highly complementary. There is a lot of room for development in bilateral agricultural product trade.


How to deepen agricultural trade cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries?

In view of the status quo of trade cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries, the following aspects can be expanded:

The first is to leverage comparative advantages to promote bilateral agricultural trade. China can increase exports of labor-intensive products with comparative advantages, such as aquatic products and fruits, and promote the extension of the agricultural industry chain. Importing products that have comparative advantages in Central and Eastern Europe, such as dairy products and honey, can not only meet the increasing demand of our domestic market, but also give play to the potential of export products from Central and Eastern European countries.


The second is to focus on the implementation of differentiated marketing strategies. The 17 countries in Central and Eastern Europe are quite different. The agricultural products trade between China and Central and Eastern European countries coexist and complement each other. Therefore, when expanding the agricultural products market in Central and Eastern Europe, it is necessary to consider the reality of each country and implement differentiated marketing strategies. The trade complementarity between China and Central and Eastern European countries is mainly based on inter-industry complementarity, but trade with Poland and other countries shows intra-industry complementarity, and the 17 Central and Eastern European countries are not a unified regional organization. The agricultural trade with Central and Eastern European countries needs to be considered. The actual situation of the implementation of differentiated marketing strategies.

The third is to further enhance the level of trade convenience. The two sides have further strengthened consultations, relaxed market access, strengthened mutual recognition of standards, reduced non-tariff barriers, strengthened customs inspection cooperation, and provided more convenient conditions for agricultural trade. Improve the bilateral agricultural cooperation mechanism. Through the development of agricultural economic and trade forums between China and Central and Eastern European countries, as many bilateral agricultural cooperation memorandums as possible are signed, making full use of inter-governmental agricultural cooperation projects to promote cooperation and exchanges between enterprises, further expanding the ways and fields of bilateral agricultural cooperation, and promoting multi-level bilateral agricultural cooperation development of.

The fourth is to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in customs, quality inspection and mutual market access. Further discuss matters such as raising the level of market access and expanding open areas, appropriately relaxing restrictions on market access, technical standards, etc., providing policy support for corporate investment, reducing tariffs and non-tariff barriers, and strengthening cooperation in customs and quality inspection , To fully release the development potential of bilateral trade.