The 22nd China-ASEAN Expo will be held in Nanning, Guangxi from September 17 to 21, 2025, with special durian products attracting consumers to experience and buy. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhu Lili

In recent years, China and ASEAN agricultural trade cooperation has thrived, complementarity advantages have been continuously highlighted and accelerated release, injecting a strong impetus for economic development of both sides, and showing a unique and important position in the global economic pattern.

According to the General Administration of Customs statistics, in the first eight months of this year, China to ASEAN imports and exports of agricultural products 296.6 billion yuan, growth compared to 9.7%, accounting for the gross value of China's agricultural products imports and exports 20.1%, ASEAN hasined the position of China's agricultural products' largest trading partner for 8 consecutive years. China and ASEAN trade volume has since the first China-ASEAN Expo in 2004, more than 87 billion yuan, grew to 7 trillion yuan in 2024, grew 7 times,ined growth for 9 consecutive years. Even in the face of complex and changing global economic situation, stillined strong growth and vitality, highlighting the huge potential and resilience of both agricultural products trade.

The differences between China and ASEAN are natural complementary. ASEAN is located in the tropical and sub-tropical regions, has a rich variety of tropical agricultural resources, and the output of rubber, coffee, cocoa, tropical fruits and so on is incredibly high. For example, granules in Thailand, Vietnam and other countries are loved by Chinese consumers because of their unique flavour and high quality. In 2024, China imported granules about 156 million tons, total value of $69,9 billion, making a historic high, of which 60% came from Thailand. While China's region is wide, across multiple climate zones, the advantage in the production of temperate and sub-tropical agricultural products is significant, rice, wheat, corn and other food crops and poultry and livestock products and so on can meet the diversified food consumption and

Complementary industrial structures promote the coordinated development of both sides. China's agricultural technology development is relatively mature, showing strong competitiveness in agricultural product processing, feed production, agricultural mechanization, etc. It can export advanced agricultural machinery and equipment, high-quality feed products, etc. to ASEAN countries, helping them improve agricultural production efficiency and processing level. At the same time, the agriculture of ASEAN countries is dominated by raw material production and primary processing. The primary agricultural products such as rubber and palm oil produced by ASEAN countries are indispensable raw materials for China's manufacturing industry, which is conducive to the stable production of China's tire manufacturing, food processing and other industries.

China's huge consumer market provides a broad space for ASEAN agricultural products, with the improvement of living standards, Chinese consumers' demand for tropical fruits, seafood and other ASEAN agricultural products continues to climb. The rise of e-commerce platform further expanded the ASEAN agricultural products into the Chinese market, so that more specialized agricultural products enter China thousands of thousands of households. In addition, ASEAN countries' demand for China's processed agricultural products and feed has grown steadily, China's high added value agricultural products exports have met ASEAN countries' increasingly diverse consumer needs, and also provided a rich choice for local farming industry.

The two sides have distinct advantages in agricultural trade, complement each other. ASEAN exports to China fruits, potatoes, palm oil and other categories, occupy an important share in the Chinese market, enrich the Chinese agricultural product market, meet the needs of domestic different consumer groups. China exports to ASEAN feather, animal feed and other specialty agricultural products, are also popular in the ASEAN market, provide strong support for ASEAN related industries, this type of complementarity makes the two sides trade cooperation to deepen and expand.

The policy-driven and cooperation mechanisms help accelerate the release of complementary advantages between China and ASEAN. The comprehensive implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) has created favorable conditions for trade in agricultural products between the two sides, with more than 90% of intra-regional trade ultimately achieving zero tariffs and greatly reducing trade costs. China and ASEAN countries actively implement policy initiatives such as rules of origin to further simplify trade procedures. With the conclusion of the substantiality of the upgrading negotiations between China and ASEAN Free Trade Zone 3.0, the two sides will develop broader and deeper cooperation in emerging fields such as digital economy, green economy and traditional agriculture.

Infrastructure unification strengthened trade support. Opening operations of the middle-old railway became an important milestone, as of September 19, the entire line cumulative launch of freight trains broke 60,000 rows, freight volume exceeded 67.6 million tons, of which cross-border freight transport broke 15 million tons, freight volume achieved two-digit growth for 3 consecutive years. along the cold chain, storage and other supporting facilities continued to improve, providing more convenient, efficient and low-cost land route for ASEAN agricultural products transportation.

The bridge role of the exhibition and cooperation platforms cannot be underestimated. China-ASEAN Expo as an important platform for economic and trade cooperation, attracts a large number of enterprises to participate in the exhibition each year. At the 22nd China-ASEAN Expo held from September 17 to 21, many agricultural products enterprises have concentrated to showcase specialty agricultural products and advanced technologies, promote exchanges and cooperation between both enterprises, and numerous trade contracts and investment projects.

Looking forward to the future, the complementary advantages of agricultural products trade between China and ASEAN will be further deepened and expanded in many aspects.

First, the digital economy will empower trade upgrades, the deep integration of e-commerce platforms will break the time and space constraints, big data analysis will achieve accurate connection between supply and demand, and traceability systems and intelligent warehousing and logistics will improve quality control and distribution efficiency.

Second, the green economy will further expand the space for cooperation. Under the guidance of the concept of global green development, the two sides have great potential for cooperation in the fields of green agriculture and sustainable development. China's technical experience in ecological agriculture and organic planting can provide reference for ASEAN, and ASEAN's good ecological environment provides superior conditions for the development of green agricultural products. Both sides can jointly carry out green agricultural products certification and standard formulation.

Third, supply chain integration will enhance regional competitiveness. With the opportunity of the implementation of RCEP and China-ASEAN Free Trade Area version 3.0, the two sides will further integrate the regional agricultural supply chain and realize the coordinated development of the whole industrial chain by strengthening the upstream and downstream cooperation of the industrial chain. This deep integration will optimize resource allocation, improve production efficiency, reduce production costs, enhance the overall competitiveness of both sides in the global agricultural market, and promote the process of regional agricultural economic integration.

China and ASEAN¡¯s complementary trade advantages in agricultural products are accelerating at an unprecedented rate.Driven by emerging factors such as the digital economy and the green economy, agricultural trade between the two sides is expected to move to a higher level, make greater contributions to regional economic prosperity and the stable development of global agricultural trade, and continue to write a brand new chapter of win-win cooperation.