A delegation of Chinese senior agricultural
policy and program directors organized by the Heilongjiang Provincial
Government, P. R. of China came to the GROWMARK Ontario region office today to
learn more about GROWMARK and co-operatives. The 20-member delegation was led
by Zhiguang Xing, deputy director of the Agricultural Affairs Committee of
Heilongjiang Province.
The purpose
of the group’s visit to Canada was to learn more and establish international exchange
about the agri-food industry particularly with regards to advanced food processing,
value-added processing, food quality and food safety, as well as agricultural
market and development in the modern age including farmer co-operatives,
sustainability issues and innovation.
Claude Gauthier, GROWMARK executive director-Ontario operations and Don McLean, GROWMARK Ontario agronomy business director did a presentation on the GROWMARK System and co-operative business model with key examples of innovative practices and trends in agronomy, energy and grain marketing.
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| Claude Gauthier gives broad overview of the GROWMARK Co-operative System. |
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| Don McLean provides insight into FS Agronomy including 4Rs, MiField and FS Stewardship |
The two hour visit was topped off by a gracious exchange of gifts and a group photo opportunity.
The
group’s organization, Sino-CanadaTechnology Exchange Centre, is based in Toronto with an office in Beijing. The
province of Heilongjiang is the located in the northeast of China with
over 210 million hectares of farmland, approximately one ninth of the total
farmland in the country.
