A largely agricultural city in the underdeveloped western part of Guangdong province, Zhanjiang stands poised for massive economic growth in the next three years.

While the main drivers of this development are two large-scale petrochemical and steel projects, the modernization of the city's traditional agriculture industry also plays a part, the president of a local giant in the sugar industry said.

Lin Shuixi, founder and president of Jinling Group, said the company plans to build a processing plant for refined sugar by 2016 to increase the added value of its exports.

In 2013, Jinling Group sold 280,000 metric tons of sugar and generated revenue of 2 billion yuan ($326 million). The corporation exported 3,800 metric tons of sugar last year, and its foreign exchange earnings totaled $2.08 million.

It was a tough year for Chinese sugar manufacturers. Most of them failed to make profits because of low sugar prices and rising production costs.

As a deputy to the National People's Congress, Lin stood during the ongoing "two sessions" in Beijing to ask that the central government continue policies regarding the temporary storage of sugar surpluses.

Overproduction is driving prices down, so the government needs to buy up the surplus to keep the industry profitable, he said.

"Otherwise, farmers will lose their incentive to produce," Lin said in an exclusive interview with China Daily during the "two sessions".

Farms for the sources of raw sugar - sugarcane and beets -are scattered throughout China and much of the processing occurs in small workshops, driving up the cost of labor, he said.

"Chinese sugar producers are unable to offer a price as cheap as foreign countries, which use large-scale concentrated farming," Lin added.

"That puts Chinese sugar producers at a disadvantage in the international sugar market."

Optimistic solution

Lin's corporation has set an example for how to cope with the challenges. In addition to upgrading production equipment, Jinlin Group imports raw materials and increases the added value of exports by producing refined sugar for sophisticated applications, such as pharmaceuticals.

"We will continue to increase the investment in upgrading the equipment and carry forward the constructions of two important projects - the new refined-sugar-processing plant in Xiashan district and the agricultural product trading platform for Beibu Gulf area," Lin unfolded the blueprint for his corporation's development over the next two years.

"The two projects will hopefully contribute to Zhanjiang's economic rise."

The sugar processing plant in the near-port industrial park in Xiashan is expected to create 400 job opportunities and generate annual tax revenue of 60 million yuan.

The Beibu Gulf Agricultural Products Comprehensive Trading Demonstration Park aims to provide local people with a trustworthy wholesale market, facilitating the exchange of agricultural products between the country's southern and northern areas, and promote the trades of agricultural products between China and the ASEAN countries.

"Gathering the products from farmers to the trading platform will make it easier for the government to carry out food safety inspection and trace the source of problematic products," said Lin.

The trading platform will go into operation before 2016. The output value may be 20 billion yuan while the annual tax revenue it contributes may hit 50 million yuan.