Vice Minister Zhang Zhili met with Marten Van den Berg, Director-General Agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature of the Netherlands, in Beijing on May 15. The two sides exchanged views on strengthening agricultural cooperation between China and the Netherlands. 

Vice Minister Zhang noted that, under the strategic guidance of the leaders of both countries, China and the Netherlands have enjoyed increasingly robust agricultural cooperation, benefiting from sound cooperation mechanisms, steady growth in agricultural trade, and fruitful outcomes in areas such as livestock, veterinary medicine, and the dairy industry. He expressed China’s readiness to work with the Netherlands to consolidate the existing foundation for cooperation, further explore potential in seed industries, comprehensive utilization of saline-alkali land, and agricultural biodiversity, and build platforms for research institutions and enterprises from both countries, to deepen practical cooperation in agriculture. 

Director-General Marten Van den Berg spoke highly of the progress made in bilateral agricultural cooperation in recent years. He expressed the Netherlands’ commitment to leveraging the high-level working group on agricultural cooperation, and to strengthening exchanges in agricultural science and technology and animal health, with a view to taking bilateral agricultural cooperation to new heights.