(China Daily Photo) |
More Chinese companies and individuals are looking for sources of growth in the rich land of Russia's Far East region, as Wu Yong reports from Suifenhe, Heilongjiang province.
Liu Jianping seems totally unaware of the approaching Siberian cold front as he shuttles between this northern Chinese border town and Primorsky Territory in Russia's Far East.
"If only the north wind could be colder and stronger," he said, as that would help him, as well as other Chinese farmers operating across the border, to run their combine harvesters on the frozen-solid farmland.
Liu was among the first Chinese farmers to tap the potential of Russia's Far East as a major global grain producing center.
He currently has 16,000 hectares of farmland in Russia, and he is expecting his grain harvest to exceed 20,000 metric tons this year.
These would sound like impossible numbers for most Chinese farmers, who traditionally operate small, densely packed plots. Indeed, Liu said: "Primorsky is a miraculous land. It offers bountiful harvests at low costs."
For farm contractors in Russia's Far East, the annual land use fee is commonly around 12 yuan ($1.9) per hectare.
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