Qingdao’s exports of agricultural products in the first half of this year amounted to RMB 26.2 bln, representing 30.8% of Shandong Province’s total and surging 11.4% from the year before. The growth rate outpaces the provincial average and the national average by 5.8 percentage points and 4 percentage points, respectively. Qingdao continues to lead all Chinese large and medium-sized cities in terms of exports of agricultural products.

Despite that the global supply chain suffered more severe fluctuations, Qingdao’s exports of agricultural products bucked the trend and achieved notable growth. Qingdao has so far developed two RMB 100 bln-level, eight RMB 10 bln-level and fifteen RMB 1 bln-level modern agricultural industrial chains, and is home to as many as 1,100 agricultural product processing enterprises above a designated size. Competitive products such as Jiaozhou Pepper, Pingdu Pickles and Laixi Broiler Chicken and Rabbits dominate their own international niche markets.

Furthermore, Qingdao has taken faster steps to diversify its export destinations, and is seeing “the second growth curve” contributed by Southeast Asia, countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road cooperation as well as the SCO member states. Since its launching in July 2024, the SCO International Green Agricultural Products Expo and Trading Center has seen an online transaction volume of more than 200,000 tons worth RMB 3 bln.  (Yu Ruixin)