On March 29th, Ambassador He Xiangdong had a virtual meeting with Mr. Charlie McConalogue, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Mr. Martin Heydon, Minister of State, and Ms. Sinéad McPhillips, Assistant Secretary General of Department of Agriculture were present.
Minister McConalogue and State Minister Heydon said that China is Ireland's fourth-largest market for agri-food and second-largest market for Irish dairy and pig meat. More and more Irish agri-food enterprises look forward to strengthening collaborations with their Chinese partners. Ireland attaches great importance to China's market prospects and looks forward to exporting more high-quality agri-food products to China.
Ambassador He said that economic and trade cooperation is an important part of China-Ireland relations. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the bilateral trade reached a new high in 2020. In the first two months of this year, the bilateral trade increased by 22.4%, with Irish export to China increased by 13.2%. The China-Ireland agri-food cooperation is of great potential. China stands ready to work with Ireland to further promote bilateral cooperation in various fields including agri-food sector.
The two sides exchanged views on relevant issues.