The third China-CELAC Ministerial Forum on Agriculture takes place in Weifang, East China's Shandong province, on July 2. [Photo/WeChat account: wfnews001]

The third China-CELAC Ministerial Forum on Agriculture kicked off on July 2 in Weifang, Shandong, a modern agriculture hub. Over 120 international guests have gathered for agricultural exchanges and cooperation among government departments, enterprises, and research institutes.

The forum served as a platform for agricultural communication between government departments, research institutions, and enterprises in China and CELAC countries. It also sought to comprehensively deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in various areas, such as agricultural trade, investment, science and technology, and rural poverty reduction.

The forum highlighted the remarkable achievements of China-CELAC agricultural cooperation. China has established bilateral agricultural cooperation mechanisms with 19 CELAC countries. Agricultural trade and economic cooperation have grown rapidly, and cooperation in areas such as agricultural mechanization, promotion of new varieties, and rice production has deepened.

Shandong has made agricultural opening-up an important means of accelerating the modernization of agriculture and rural areas and has achieved fruitful results in opening-up its agriculture to the outside world.

Shandong will continue to regard agriculture as a key area for deepening opening-up, continuously expand international cooperation and exchanges in agriculture, and utilize both domestic and international markets to continuously promote the modernization of agriculture and rural areas with a high level of opening-up.