“China’s agriculture is only 10% of their GDP, whereas ours is 24% of our GDP. And they are major importers of agri-products. We are working with the Chinese government to ensure that in the next couple of months, they open up their markets to our agriculture and poultry exports,” commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath said here at a Ficci conference.

The minister said, during his recent visit to China, he had asked the Chinese agriculture minister to remove restrictions like sanitary and phyto sanitary measures on farm sector imports from India.

Nath said China currently imports a major portion of food products from countries like New Zealand, which are unable to meet their demand.

The minister said India would be a leading farm products exporter when its agriculture sector turns from being subsistence-based to commerce-based. Nath said the Centre would encourage more production of food items to create a domestic surplus.