Dehua, Songxi Showcase Chinese Agriculture, Crafts At IFAD Marketplace

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 30 (Bernama) -- The IFAD-SSTC Marketplace on Agricultural Technology Innovation and Investment opened at the United Nations (UN) Building in Beijing in September, featuring highlights from Dehua white porcelain and Songxi agricultural products.

Hosted by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the event aimed to build a targeted South-South cooperation platform to showcase China's agricultural achievements and share replicable solutions. 

More than 120 participants attended, including diplomats from 17 embassies and representatives from seven UN agencies in China, according to a statement.

Dehua County, a mountainous county in southeast China's Fujian Province, showcased white porcelain works, including the Flourishing Flower Basket and Quanzhou Nanyin, a sculpture inspired by UNESCO-listed Nanyin music from Quanzhou, alongside wild red mushrooms, alpine tea oil and Chinese yam.

One of the birthplaces of Chinese ceramic culture, Dehua is a national white porcelain hub with over 4,000 enterprises generating 76 billion Chinese yuan annually. It is China's largest producer and exporter of ceramic crafts, tea sets and planters. (100 Chinese yuan = RM60.85)

Meanwhile, Songxi County, a rural county in Nanping City and its sole county-level exhibitor, presented century-old sugarcane pastries, Huaqiao bitter bamboo shoots, Jiulong white tea, green tea, black tea and matcha.

Songxi County Secretary Wu Wei said the exhibition offered a vital opportunity to advance opening-up and deepen international agricultural cooperation, adding that Songxi would use the platform to absorb advanced ideas, pool quality resources and drive industrial upgrading.

Nestled between Wuyi Mountain, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Baishanzu National Park, Songxi is home to a sugarcane planting system first established in 1727 during the Qing Dynasty, with the mother cane still sprouting after nearly 300 years.

During the event, guests discussed cross-border agricultural trade, technology exchange and value-chain enhancement. Both stands emerged as among the most-visited, broadening international visibility and injecting fresh momentum into China's county-level speciality industries going global.

-- BERNAMA