Agri-food trading center to start construction

Construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Agricultural Produce Trading Center will commence after a launch ceremony was held in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, on Tuesday.

Located in Zhongluotan township in Guangzhou's Baiyun district, the center which covers more than 1.3 million square meters will become the largest "vegetable basket" project in the GBA when operation starts.

The project, which is funded by Kingold Group and focuses on promoting comprehensively digital, green and international development, will also become a dual hub for national agricultural and food product distribution and cross-border agricultural and food product trade in the following years.

The first phase of the project covers an area of more than 351,333 square meters, with construction floor space of over 910,000 square meters. It includes construction of a multi-level trading center, a global food display and experience center, a smart cold chain center, a low-altitude urban distribution center, an international exhibition center, and a new food and cultural tourism distribution center.

Chau Chak Wing, chairman of Kingold Group, said his group will construct the project from an advanced starting point and to a high standard in order to create a high quality agricultural produce trading center in GBA.

Chau said the center will help "famous, special and excellent "Chinese products to go global and introduce more high-quality agricultural and food products from France and the European Union to GBA, further expanding global trade to provide a strong economic support and development engine for enhancing new quality productive forces and accelerating high-quality development to promote the development of Chinese modernization in the months to come.

Chau said he believes the center will attract more than 2,000 professional merchants from around the world and would be able to reach an annual transaction volume of more than 100 billion yuan ($14 billion) when the first phase starts operation.

Sylvain Fourriere, consul general of France in Guangzhou, said he was pleased to see the deep strategic cooperation between Kingold and Rungis International Market, the largest fresh produce market in the world, on the occasion of commemorating the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between France and China.

"As the operator of the world's largest wholesale market for agricultural and food products, Rungis International Market, the first project in China, we look forward to working with Kingold Group to integrate the best management and food safety practices in the world," he said. "And we believe the center in GBA will be able to achieve from French farms to Chinese dining tables in the following months.

"The project constitutes a concrete example of partnership and friendship between our two countries. It will strengthen economic relations and agri-food trade for the satisfaction of our two nations and peoples," he added.

According to Thierry Febvay, executive director of Semmaris, it is a win-win project between his company and Kingold that will bring management experience synchronized with the international market and the ability to link global industrial chains, actively practicing the supply chain concept from French farms to Chinese dining tables.

He Jingqing, Party secretary of Baiyun district, said his district will spare no effort to support the construction of the project and join hands with Kingold Group to build the center into an important hub and demonstration benchmark for the global distribution and trading of high-quality agricultural and food products, contributing to rural vitalization and integrated development of agriculture, culture and tourism.