Interview: Spain, China have "great possibilities" in agri-food cooperation -- minister

MADRID, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Spain and China have "great possibilities" to expand and deepen agri-food cooperation, Spanish Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Luis Planas said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

He said China's progress in all aspects in the past decades has been "spectacular." With greater spending power, the Asian country has been a "very attractive market from an export point of view," and "We have great possibilities in expanding our commercial presence in top-level, top-quality agri-food products," he said.

When it comes to promoting commercial exchanges, he considered "very important" the freight trains between the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu and the Spanish capital of Madrid.

Under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposed by China in 2013, the commercial railway route of the Yiwu-Madrid freight train travels 13,052 km along eight countries, making it the longest railway line in the world.

The BRI "is an excellent initiative from a logistical point of view," Planas said, praising it as friendly to the environment. "Rail transport is more advantageous than maritime transport or air transport in terms of emissions," he said.

The total number of China-Europe freight train trips surpassed 90,000 on Saturday. To date, they have transported more than 8.7 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers of goods, valued at 380 billion U.S. dollars, according to China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.

The Spanish agri-food sector has "significantly" increased its presence in the Chinese market, in areas such as meat products, olive oil and wine, Planas said.

Besides the agri-food sector, "the best features" of bilateral ties, the investments that Chinese companies are making in Spain and vice versa also contribute to deepening Spain-China relations, he said.