Winter agriculture fair launches on Thursday in Hainan

The 2022 China (Hainan) International Winter Trade Fair for Tropical Agricultural Products will be held from Thursday to Sunday in Haikou, Hainan province.

"Apart from Hainan's specialties, more than 2,000 types of agricultural products from 1,200 enterprises in 18 provinces will be on show in the exhibition," said Lin Moxie, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Hainan province at a news conference on Monday.

Some 1,300 people from 22 large-scale wholesale markets, 28 agricultural industry associations and hundreds of key merchants have confirmed they will attend the fair, Lin said.

Among them, 31 exhibitors come from Henan province. Shandong exhibitors will bring well-known brands such as Yantai apples, Jinxiang garlic, Dong-E-E-Jiao, and Shouguang vegetables.

The fair, China's only exhibition of tropical agriculture during winter, has been held for 24 consecutive sessions, serving as an important platform for showing the work of agriculture, rural areas and farmers in Hainan and facilitating agricultural exchanges and cooperation.

With the theme of "Promoting high-quality agricultural development and comprehensively implementing the rural vitalization strategy", this year's fair will have 10 exhibition areas, including the Hainan fresh products hall, the science and technology strengthening agriculture hall, the rural vitalization hall and the international and domestic boutique halls.

The fair will showcase fruits and vegetables, grain and oil, marine products, animal husbandry, red wine, tea, coffee, agricultural and sideline products, agricultural materials, machinery, technology, cross-border e-commerce and leisure agriculture.

This year, for the first time, seven agricultural industry chain exhibition areas, including Wenchang chicken — one of the most popular poultry dishes in Hainan — pepper, rubber, tea, coffee, aquaculture, fruits and vegetables will be set up in the Hainan fresh food hall to display the agricultural brands of Hainan free trade port.

A tropical seed industry exhibition, covering an area of 6,000 square meters, will also be established. It will bring together nearly 80 research institutes and seed industry enterprises, including China National Seed Group, Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City and Hainan University.

Its exhibits include vegetables, fruit trees and fishery seedlings, which "will display the development achievements of Hainan seed industry", Lin said.

As of Monday, more than 340 people from 11 provincial supply and marketing cooperatives have registered for the fair. Cooperatives in 16 provinces have organized agricultural products to participate in the fair, and more than 100 enterprises, farmers' cooperatives and other market entities will present more than 1,000 varieties, said Wang Qionglong from the Hainan Supply and Marketing Cooperative Association.

Representatives from Pakistan, Cambodia, Mongolia and Israel will join the winter fair, too.

This year the fair will set up an online platform called "Digital Winter Fair", which aims to create a never-ending winter fair year-round, according to Lin.

All exhibitors and exhibits of the 2022 winter fair will be displayed and traded online. The fair will be broadcast live in real time. Viewers can also browse and purchase products online.