Chinese visitors at the First CAETE try on Ghanaian masks (XINHUA)

The beautiful Ugandan red roses decorating the entrance hall of the First China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo (CAETE) caught the eyes of delegates and added a splash of style and color to the often monotone world of business.

Uganda has emerged as one of Africa's leading flower producers and their velvet petaled roses can be found in vases of homes across the world. However, to get to China, Ugandan roses cannot be exported directly, needing first to go via Europe.

"Uganda's export [volumes] of flowers to Europe is dropping, while the Chinese market is promising for Ugandan farmers," Amit Kumar Singh told ChinAfrica. Singh is the general manager of Mairye Estate, a producer of flowers, herbs, vegetables and fruits in Uganda. He attended CAETE specifically to establish a direct business connection with Chinese customers, in order to change the situation of operating through an intermediary at extra cost.

However, the Ugandan roses are not the first flowers to reach the Chinese market as African blooms were first introduced to China by Kenya at the International Import Expo (CIIE), held last year in Shanghai.

"Different from CIIE, CAETE targets only on Africa countries. This is another golden opportunity for African countries to present their products and explore the Chinese market," He Qinwen, Deputy Director of the Kenya Nairobi Chinese Assistance Center and a Chinese businessman who conducts flower trading in Kenya, told ChinAfrica.

Booming business

The First CAETE held from June 27 to 29 in Changsha in central China's Hunan Province, is another big event showcasing the large African presence in China. The event gathered a total of more than 10,000 Chinese and African business representatives and officials, and is seen as one of the biggest achievements made at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held last September, attracting much attention across the globe, especially Africa and Asia.

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the First CAETE, which was read at the opening ceremony, saying that China and Africa are good friends, good partners and good brothers with shared destiny and vision.

It is hoped that the two sides will strengthen coordination to better implement the eight major initiatives put forward at the FOCAC Beijing Summit, actively explore new paths for cooperation, open up new points of growth for collaboration, and promote China-Africa economic and trade cooperation to a new level, said Xi.

The three-day CAETE, themed Win-Win Cooperation for Closer China-Africa Economic Partnership, attracted more than 6,600 guests and over 3,500 exhibitors, buyers and professional visitors from home and abroad. The exhibitors were from 53 African countries and 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions of China.

"Industrial development and free trade amongst us will foster faster growth for our mutual benefit. CAETE should, among others, enable us to devise ways of turning these rays of hope into a reality," said Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni who was in attendance.

His sentiments were shared by South Sudanese Ambassador to China John Andruga Duku. "Hunan Province has set a high bar for bringing together China-Africa traders," he said.

Eighty-four deals, worth $20.8 billion, were inked between China and African countries during the three-day expo, covering a wide range of areas, including trade, investment, infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing, aviation, tourism and sister city relations.

African products get huge popularity among Chinese comsumers at the first CAETE (XINHUA)

Agricultural cooperation

Agricultural cooperation between China and Africa is set to see rapid growth, judging by the expressions of interest and deals signed between the two sides at CAETE.

Deals for eight agricultural projects, worth $2.75 billion, were signed along with proposals to strengthen South-South and Triangular Cooperation raised by seven organizations, including the China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges, the China National Hybrid Rice R&D Center, and the African Union.

Africa has a long history in agricultural cooperation with Hunan Province, and is one of the major regions to benefit from research achievements of Hunan's agricultural scientists, especially from Yuan Longping, a leading Chinese agricultural scientist in Hunan, who is known as the "father of hybrid rice" in China.

In Madagascar, rice is the produce mainly planted in a terraced paddy system in the central highlands. However, despite of its nearly 2,000 years of long history in rice farming, Madagascar had in the past suffered from insufficient grain supply for many years. This was due to outdated rice breeding and crop management hindering rice production. The country had to import between 200,000 and 400,000 tons of rice annually.

During the First FOCAC Beijing Summit in 2006, the Chinese Government promised to develop 10 agricultural demonstration centers in Africa.

In 2007, the Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences was assigned to build a hybrid rice demonstration center in Madagascar and shared their world-leading hybrid rice technology, which is pioneered by Yuan, with the country. In 2010, experts from Changsha began helping Madagascar localize hybrid rice. Since then, the country has raised 20,000 hectares of hybrid rice fields, with each hectare producing about 7 tons on average. The country's 25 million people have now become self-sufficient in food requirements.

"Going forward, China and Africa will see compelling opportunities for cooperation in agricultural sector, with policy and cooperation mechanisms, agricultural trade and investment, technical cooperation, and intellectual support (training and education) being the focal areas," said Ma Youxiang, head of livestock production at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China, at CAETE.

Online expo

To make bilateral trade easier, Changsha has established an online CAETE to simplify China-Africa business and make connections available at the click of a mouse.

The online CAETE platform (Kili.co) is expected to serve nearly 500 million Chinese and African customers as well as 1 million enterprises in the next five years, according to Liu Zeqi, Director of Investment Attraction of the operator of the platform, Kilimall International Ltd., an African e-commerce platform now headquartered in Changsha and operating in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria.

The platform consists of four parts. Among them, KiliSupply and KiliSelect sell African products to China, and Kilimall and KiliBusiness help African traders reduce costs, Liu told ChinAfrica.

"With a few clicks on the website, African consumers can buy more than 10 million different products online, including electronics, fashion and home appliances," said Yang Tao, CEO of Kilimall International Ltd. Chinese customers could receive African coffee, nuts and wines in just two to five days.

African companies can also buy products in bulk from China through the platform kiliBusiness.com, such as manufacturing machinery, industrial equipment, lighting and building materials, he added.

(Comments to xyy@chinafrica.cn)