Economic cooperation between China and Uruguay can be enhanced by taking advantage of complementary strengths the countries share in many fields, according to Gaston Scayola, president of the Uruguayan National Meat Institute.
Scayola was speaking with the China Global Television Network (CGTN) on Sunday as President of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay Yamandu Orsi arrived to start his seven-day state visit to China.
China and Uruguay have built a strong agricultural trade relationship, with beef and other meat products at its core. By the end of November last year, Uruguay's beef exports to China exceeded 860 million U.S. dollars, a 14 percent year-on-year increase.
Scayola predicted that his country will increase beef exports thanks to efficient quarantine procedures from China.
"I think that we are complementary countries. Exports are very important for our economy. The meat chain is 10 percent of our economic, of our labor. I can see that Uruguay will be increasing about the production of meat, will be more efficient every time, hopefully with Chinese corporations and Chinese technology. And at the same time, China every year is increasing their consumption. These improvements in quarantine procedures have helped a lot our possibilities of doing business here. So, we will continue offering the best we produce to Chinese market. At the same time, we will be sharing with China our way of production, our genetic (data), our way of sustainable production. So, we have a great future together," he said.
China has remained Uruguay's largest trading partner for more than a decade and also serves as the biggest market for Uruguayan commodities.
Faced with growing uncertainties in the world, Scayola emphasized that mutual trust is essential for doing business between the two sides and called for stronger communication with China to expand business opportunities.
"China and Uruguay can work together to do much better (for) our world. It's very important to be prepared for our new world, to have the kind of friendship that we have, the possibility of being present and visit China very often. For me, to do business, we need to be reliable, be confident. So, the only way is being present in the market, to know the person with whom we are doing business. At the same time, we need strong communication. We need to share information this for business. We have to share communication between authorities," the institute president said.
Uruguay sees long-term complementarity with China in beef trade: insider
