The poster for the 17th China Wuhan Agriculture Expo. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The 17th China Wuhan Agriculture Expo -- or WHAE -- opened on Dec 16 at the China Optics Valley Convention and Exhibition Center in the East Lake High-tech Development Zone (Optics Valley of China) in Wuhan, the capital city of Central China's Hubei province.

The event runs to Dec 18 and has attracted the participation of over 700 agriculture-related enterprises.

The expo held in the zone is of major interest as an agricultural event, especially in Hubei and Wuhan.

At the opening ceremony, the new Wuhan national agricultural sci-tech innovation center was officially launched.

The center was officially approved on June 1, becoming the fifth and the only such center in Central China and it is located in Optics Valley.

It will mainly develop three industries: biological breeding, animal biological products and biological feed additives.

At the launch day, a signing ceremony was held and a total of 33 projects were signed worth over 80 billion yuan ($12.24 billion).

Among them, OCP Group -- the world's largest phosphate enterprise -- inked a deal with Hubei Forbon Technology Co Ltd to establish a joint venture company in Optics Valley.

The expo has a total exhibition area of 20,000 square meters and 700 exhibitors are showing the latest agricultural scientific and technological achievements of the province and the country.