The mayor of the city of Datong, Shanxi province, Li Junming, recently paid a visit to Beijing's Xinfadi wholesale market and the China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corp (COFCO), to promote construction projects in Datong.

The Xinfadi wholesale market is the largest agricultural produce wholesaler in Beijing and Datong is now working on a Xinfadi Cold Storage Chain Logistics Park, which started in April, 2012, with 12 market sites for vegetables, fruits and grain. Major work on a logistics center, a processing and distribution center and a cold storage has been completed. Li also held talks with Zhang Yuxi, president of the Beijing Xinfadi Agricultural Products Co Ltd, where he emphasized Datong’s advantages in logistics by pointing to its status as one of 42 key transport hubs in China and said he hopes Xinfadi can increase investment to in the project. COFCO was established in 1949 and started out as a foodstuff trader, gradually developing into a leading supplier of agricultural produce, foods and services. It is cooperating with Datong in a pig business worth 3 billion yuan ($490 million).

During a meeting with COFCO's manager, Xu Jianong, Li said that Datong considers agricultural transformation to be very important, and that the government will do its best to support the project.

Edited by Roger Bradshaw