Not only Sunkist but also many other American food product companies are eyeing the big market in China that has opened up with the country's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).
"We are going to make our products even more familiar in Northeast China," Laverne E Brabant, the Consul for Agricultural Affairs in the American Consulate-General in Shanghai, said on Tuesday at a news briefing for the American Fresh & Frozen Food Festival to be held later this week in this coastal city in Northeast China's Liaoning Province.
Sponsored by Wal-Mart China and the US Agricultural Trade Office, this first-ever American food festival in the region will showcase imported American food products such as Sunkist oranges, Alaska salmon, beef and frozen potato products, many not previously available in the city.
The first Sunkist oranges to land in China as a result of the Sino-US Agricultural Cooperation Agreement in April 2000 went to Dalian, "the trendsetter and new gateway of direct trade with Northeast China," said Brabant.
Since then, the volume of imported Sunkist oranges has been on the increase, and is now up to an average 200 containers a month.
Brabant said the US Agricultural Trade Office will set up a new office in Beijing later this fall, in addition to the offices in Shanghai and Guangzhou, for further promotion of American food products in North China.
"China's spectacular economic growth as a result of WTO accession should provide not only better access for US food suppliers but also more and better choices for Chinese consumers," he said.
Its first store in China set up six years ago to provide the local consumers with high quality goods at low price, Wal-Mart China also helps promote the trade in American and Chinese products through its own purchasing system, said Simon Chuen, senior director of merchandising of Wal-Mart China.
(China Daily April 25, 2002)
