World meat industry news

Trade between China and Russia reached 164.8 billion yuan (24.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of this year, up 9.8 percent compared with the same period last year, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) has said, according to Xinhua.

Luo Weidong, director of Eurasian Affairs Department of the MOFCOM, said at the China Tianjin International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) that the country expects bilateral trade between the two countries to keep momentum in 2019.

Trade between China and Russia surged in 2018, reaching $107.06 billion, a 27.1 year-on-year increase, according to MOFCOM.

Chinese investment in Russia has expanded to infrastructure construction, equipment manufacturing, oil and chemical industry, and information technology, Luo said.

Russian companies are eager to tap into the huge Chinese market. At the investment and trade fair which opened Thursday, 16 Russian companies brought their products to China, including food, beverages, grain, oil, and handicrafts.

Lyudmila Kozlovskaya, head of a Russia export company, said her company had set up a duty-free shop in a city in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

“Though transaction volume is still relatively small, the shop is a channel for further bilateral cooperation and exchange,” the Russian businesswoman said.