The export volume of farm produce in east China's Shandong Province was expected to top US$7 billion in 2005, according to local economic department.

The province exported US$6.23 billion worth of farm produce in the first 11 months last year, a rise of 26.6 percent year on year and 7.3 percentage points higher than the national average for the same period, according to the Shandong Provincial Trade and Economic Bureau.

Shandong's farm produce export accounted for 25 percent of the national total for the 11-month period, up 1.4 percentage points over the same period of 2004.

An official with the provincial trade and economic bureau ascribed the increase in export to the improvement of farm produce quality.

Shandong has set up more than 1,500 bases which produce standardized farm products, including non-pollution products and organic products. The acreage of these production bases reaches 2 million hectares.

(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2006)