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Farming Today: Farming Today This Week: China

Farming Today This Week

05/09/2015

Farming Today This Week: China

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, Farming Today This Week: China

How is UK agriculture getting a slice of the Chinese market?

Presented by Anna Hill. How is UK agriculture getting a slice of the Chinese market?

There are more than 1.3 billion people in china, and their diet is changing. Increasingly westernised, there is a demand for protein and dairy China is now one of the UK's fastest-growing export markets, with more than £280 million of British produce exported last year. So how can the UK get a bigger slice of this market?

Anna Hill talks to BBC Bureau chief Jo Floto about the context in which this is all set, the expanding middle classes, a desire for a more westernised diet and Chinas own inability to grow enough food to feed the worlds largest population.

Andrew Taylor is in charge of Cranswick abattoir and processing plant in Norfolk. They export fifth quarter cuts (the bits which no one in the UK will eat) to China. He explains to Anna Hill what the Chinese demands are.

Meanwhile in Scotland, Nancy Nicholson visits Marine Marine Harvest, who export salmon to China to find out how cache and provenance is an important aspect to Chinese consumers.

However China is experiencing an economic downturn, so should UK farmers and producers be concerned? Allan Wilkinson is the head of UK Agriculture for HSBC, he told Sally Challenor that the market was a short term problem and would have very little effect on Agriculture here.

Its not just food products which are being exported. Professor Dale Sanders explains to Ann Hill how The John Innes centre is working closely with Chinese colleagues on scientific agricultural development.

Presenter Anna Hill. Producer Ruth Sanderson.

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