The China-Shanxi Agricultural Products Trade Expo (APTE), in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province, wrapped things up nicely, on Oct 20, with total trade and number of visitors way beyond all previous sessions.

The five-day expo also had 91,000 products on display involve 5,542 subclasses under 18 categories.

It had 192 investment projects, worth 60.37 billion yuan ($9.9 billion), an increase of 30 percent over last year, and 1,530 trade deals, worth 38.18 billion yuan, up 15 percent, with the contracts showing just how big the business was.

The sales deals concluded during this year's expo were also better than at the last expo, reaching 50 million yuan, while the average daily sales volume also topped the last two sessions.

There were more than 100 new produce varieties on display, such as quinoa from Xinzhou, bergamot pears from Xi county, organic vegetables from Xinjiang, and strawberries from Qinyuan, with new growing technology, such as hydroponics, intelligent dual mode greenhouses, and intelligent pig-raising in the spotlight.

This year's event also represented a new trend toward simplification, compared with the previous two and lowered the entry requirements without sacrificing quality, and by separating the exhibition and sales sections so that it served as a way to boost investment and encourage trade negotiations.

Edited by Roger Bradshaw