“The Chinese minister stressed that several high-level meetings and signed agreements between the Estonian and Chinese food watchdogs and agriculture ministers are a sign of good relations between the two countries, and also a basis for cooperation in other fields,” Kruuse said.

“Irrespective of our agricultural production being small, as one of the Nordic countries we are attractive to China with our high quality food products that come from Estonia’s clean nature,” Kruuse said, adding that according to the Chinese minister, Estonian green products were very welcome on the Chinese market.

According to Kruuse, the meeting mainly focused on the good cooperation between Estonian and Chinese authorities, which had helped open the Chinese market for Estonian entrepreneurs. They also discussed the global challenges agriculture and the trade of agricultural products are facing.

The future of agriculture depended on how well Estonia could go along with changes in science and technology, and bring innovation to agriculture, Kruuse said. He added that Estonia wanted to strengthen its research cooperation with China as well.

Kruuse is on a visit to China from Nov. 4 to 8 at the invitation of China’s Agriculture Ministry.