Asian Agribusiness Consulting

Permanent Representative of China to UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture attends 40th Session of FAO Conference

More cases of H7N9 reported in Beijing

Twenty-seven cases of human H7N9 have been reported to authorities in Beijing so far this year, the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control said on Tuesday. 

Of the 13 cases contracted in the city of Beijing itself, six people have died, six were cured and one is undergoing medical treatment, Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the center, said at a news conference. 

Most of the other cases were contracted in areas neighboring Beijing. Of those, 11 were cured and three are undergoing treatment, he said. 

The center said no apparent mutation has been detected in the virus and no human-to-human transmission of the disease has been reported in Beijing, so the public need not panic. 

"The number of H7N9 cases in China is higher than usual, and Beijing is no exception," Pang said. "The people were infected through poultry, but there have been no concentrated outbreaks in Beijing." 

China saw its biggest H7N9 outbreak over the past winter since the virus was first reported in China in 2013. A total of 352 human cases of H7N9 were reported in the first two months of this year, with 140 deaths, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission. By comparison, 57 cases were reported in the first two months of 2016, the commission said. 

Twelve H7N9 cases were reported between June 2 and 8 in nine provincial regions in China, and the number of new cases remained low for three consecutive weeks, the commission said last month. There is no evidence that the virus is becoming more infectious to humans, it said. 

The Ministry of Agriculture announced in June that South China's Guangdong province and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region - two major centers for the poultry trade in China - had been chosen as pilot regions where all chickens, ducks and geese will receive vaccines against the H7N9 virus. Veterinary authorities of the two regions may start administering vaccinations in July, monitor the side effects and report the findings to the ministry, it said. 

The Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control said residents should continue to take precautionary measures to prevent infection, such as avoiding contact with live poultry and cooking eggs and meat thoroughly, even though the disease is less likely to show up in summer.

Source: China Daily. Date: 2017-07-13

Asia's future farms

Food shortages are a distant memory for many people in Asia. But as the region struggles to feed and nourish a booming population, they could become a painful fact of life again. 

Asia is already the world’s largest food market, and by 2050 its population is expected to grow to five billion – an increase of 900 million people. Owing to its expanding middle class, the region will likely account for half of the global increase in annual beef and poultry consumption and over three quarters of the rise in fish consumption between now and 2030. And by then, more than 60% of total cereal demand in the developing world will come from South and East Asia. To keep up with this growing demand, food production will have to increase by 60-70% compared to a decade ago. 

Ideally, Asia’s farms could simply expand their production. But they are woefully ill-equipped to do so. To produce a sufficient amount of food, Asia’s farms will need to undergo a twenty-first-century transformation. 

Helping Asia’s farmers cope with climate change should be a central part of this effort. Although a warming planet could boost agricultural output in a few areas, it will severely limit production, and possibly trigger prolonged food crises, throughout the rest of the region. As water becomes increasingly scarce in traditionally fertile zones such as the Indo-Gangetic Plain, rising seas will ruin vast swathes of farmland. If sea levels were to rise by one meter, the resulting saltwater intrusion would threaten 70% of Vietnam’s coastal farmlands. And as waters warm and tidal flows change, yields from the Mekong Delta’s vast fishing grounds could plummet. 

According to Asian Development Bank research, by 2050, irrigated rice and wheat yields could fall by as much as 20% and 44%, respectively. This would drive up the price for cereals, soybeans, and wheat by 70%, causing the number of malnourished children in the region to rise by 11 million. 

But this doesn’t have to be Asia’s future, if its farmers can adapt. Most farmers today oversee family-run subsistence plots, and lack the money and know-how to improve productivity and crop quality. In Myanmar, for example, only 16% of farm households even use tillers or tractors to prepare the land for planting. 

Moreover, environmental degradation has left huge swaths of land barren. According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, various forms of desertification affect nearly 40% of Asia's total land area. While governments cannot create new arable land, they can – and must – pursue policies to support, consolidate, and intensify farming operations on the land that is still available. 

For starters, the region’s governments can promote farm cooperatives. Not to be confused with old-style collectivized farming, today’s cooperatives are thoroughly commercial, prioritizing efficiency and profits. They comprise agricultural enterprises as well as farmers, all of whom pool their resources to create economies of scale, reduce costs, and lift incomes. When bought in bulk by a cooperative, inputs such as fertilizer and equipment are less expensive, as is the harvesting process. By coming together to coordinate planting, cooperatives in India and Nepal have made it possible for every member’s crops to be sown and harvested together by a machine, rather than individually by hand. 

Cooperatives can also add value after the harvest, by streamlining crop cleaning, grading, packaging, storage, and transportation. This increases the supply of food and boosts farmers’ incomes, especially in places such as Bangladesh, where more than one-third of perishables spoil before ever reaching the consumer. 

China is already modernizing farms through cooperatives, and by using digital e-commerce platforms to tap into high-value markets. In Vietnam, a cooperative program has improved the quality of produce for urban consumers, and boosted tea, fruit, and vegetable revenues by nearly one third. 

Although cooperatives are gradually catching on in Asia, they will need more support. Most of the region’s cooperatives are fragile, informal arrangements. But with the right legal framework in place, they could become far more efficient and durable. 

China’s 2007 Farmers’ Cooperative Law serves as a good model. By offering incentives such as value-added-tax exemptions, the law has encouraged cooperatives and other agricultural organizations to collaborate and create economies of scale. Within three years of the law’s enactment, the number of cooperatives in China had increased ninefold, to nearly 400,000. 

Cooperatives also help farmers manage the effects of climate change, by creating networks through which members can share knowledge about tricky adaptive strategies like switching from crops to fish or shrimp in saline-affected areas. And with the extra income that cooperatives provide, farmers can buy greenhouses to prolong their production season, and shield against erratic weather. Cooperatives also allow farmers to benefit from previously unavailable techniques such as fertigation – using irrigation to deliver liquid fertilizers. 

Finally, cooperatives make climate-smart technologies more affordable. With new digital technologies, farmers can better manage their land, water, and energy use, and prepare for bad weather. For example, the Philippines has experimented with apps that give farmers news about plant and animal diseases, the best places to buy and sell farm supplies, and upcoming weather events. 

By using less labor, and more capital and technology, Asia’s future farms can grow enough food to feed everyone in the region. Cooperatives are one way to make this vision a reality. Only then will food shortages truly be a thing of the past.

Source: Euronews. Date: 2017-07-12

WA to quench Vietnam’s growing taste for beer

Executives from the CBH Group and Interflour jointly celebrated the opening of the Intermalt grain processing centre with representatives of the Vietnamese government. 

Intermalt is located in Cai Mep, Vietnam, and will be the largest malting plant in South East Asia. It will have the capacity to produce 110,000 tonnes of malt a year and will service major brewers in the region including Heineken Vietnam.

CBH Chairman Wally Newman said through its 50 per cent shareholding of Interflour the cooperative’s involvement in downstream grain processing in Vietnam has diversified the farmer owned business’ income stream and resulted in increased market opportunities for Australian grain.

“CBH’s investment in Interflour 12 years ago was ground breaking and the opening of the Intermalt facility marks a new phase of growth for the business as it moves into barley processing and expands across South East Asia,” Mr Newman said.

“It will be a new chapter for Western Australian barley growers who now have direct access to Vietnam’s burgeoning beer market,” he said.

Mr Newman said over the past harvest growers delivered 1.5 million tonnes of malt barley into the CBH silos and the facility provides a new market for growers.

As part of the final commissioning phase, Intermalt has already purchased 42,000 tonnes of malt barley, with 32,000 tonnes coming from the Kwinana and Albany port zones of the Western Australian grain belt. 

“Not only is the Intermalt infrastructure impressive, but so too is the growth and opportunity it affords our growers, our businesses and the Asia Pacific region as a whole,” Mr Newman said.

“Our current and future growers can look forward to benefiting from Interflour’s expansion and this new venture generating value that we can then return to them a number of ways including through our investment rebate,” he said.

Heineken Vietnam corporate affairs director Matt Wilson said Heineken Vietnam always seeks to use local suppliers where possible in order to drive jobs and wealth in Vietnam.

“Our preference for local sourcing has seen us contribute around 0.75% of Vietnam’s total GDP and support nearly 200,000 jobs in Vietnam,” Mr Wilson said.

“Because of this, we are very happy to see Intermalt entering the local market with the potential to supply us with locally produced malt in the future and increase our contribution to the Vietnamese economy,” he said.

CBH Chairman Wally Newman and Chief executive officer Andy Crane attended the ceremony together with directors and senior leaders including Interflour Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Greg Harvey, Intermalt General Manager James Kirton and representatives from the Vietnamese government.

Source: Farmingahead. Date: 2017-07-12

How China plans to boost actualisation of ERGP

With agriculture being a major component of Nigeria’s recently launched economic plan called Nigeria Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), the Chinese government’s initiative called the China-Nigeria Agricultural Modernization Cooperation Forum may prove pivotal to the success of the ERGP.

China boasts of being able to feed about 20 per cent of the world’s population with only around 9 per cent of the world’s arable land.

Speaking at the onset of the initiative held in Abuja, Dr Zhou Pingjian, Ambassador of China to Nigeria, stated that “Nigeria is the most populous country and largest economy in Africa. Agriculture accounts for 23 percent of its GDP and employs 38 per cent of its working population. No wonder agriculture and food security has been listed as one of the five key execution priorities of ERGP.”

He explained that “according to ERGP, agriculture will continue to be a stable driver of Nigeria’s GDP growth, with an average growth rate of 6.9 per cent over the plan period. By 2020, Nigeria is projected to become a net exporter of key agricultural products, such as rice, cashew nuts, groundnuts, cassava and vegetable oil.

“We are convinced that Nigeria will achieve self-sufficiency in tomato paste, rice, wheat and other farm produce through its own hard work. As a strategic partner of Nigeria, China stands ready to share its experience in agricultural development with Nigeria and provide financial and technical support to assist Nigeria achieve agricultural transformation and food security.

“We are willing to work with Nigeria side to provide more effective platform to mobilize more Chinese investment in Nigeria’s Green Alternative.”

The forum was put together by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), China Chamber of Commerce in Nigeria and a Chinese firm, Green Agriculture West Africa Limited (GAWAL).

Source: Nigerian Tribune. Date: 2017-07-11

How has e-commerce changed life in rural China?

Every day, Chen Yandong handles dozens of packages for the residents in Gaozhai village in Northwest China's Gansu province. 

From appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners to daily necessities like razors and toothpaste, Chen is amazed by how residents of the remote village make the most of their Internet connections to add convenience to their lives. 

"People are happy to get access to good prices and quality products from online vendors," Chen said. 

E-commerce is helping revitalize China's rural villages, home to half of the country's population. It has also emerged as a new growth driver for consumer spending in the world's second largest economy. 

China has the world's largest e-commerce market. As the incomes of rural residents increase, growth in online retail purchases by rural shoppers has outpaced their urban counterparts. 

China's rural residents spent 894.54 billion yuan ($131.47 billion) online in 2016, accounting for 17.4 percent of the nation's total, according to the Ministry of Commerce. 

E-commerce is also opening the doors to the huge rural market for companies and farmers. 

Alibaba, which began a rural strategy on its e-commerce platform Taobao in 2014, has set up local service centers in about 30,000 villages across 700 counties to support its e-commerce business and provide delivery services in rural areas. 

To meet rising demand, e-commerce giant JD.com is expanding its service center workforce to over 300,000 in rural areas. 

Farmers have also raked in handsome profits from selling premium produce online. 

Li Chunwang. from Wugong county in Shaanxi province, has set up a cooperative which purchases fruit from farmers and sells it online. Previously it made an annual income around 3 million yuan. In 2016, the number shot up to nearly 300 million yuan. 

The city of Donggang in Northeast China's Liaoning province is well-known for its strawberries. In 2016, more than 80 percent of the city's strawberries and strawberry-related products were sold online. In the first three months this year, online sales reached 1.2 million yuan. 

Tian Yihong, party secretary of Wugong county, said e-commerce has given local agriculture a boost and farmers no longer remain stuck at the lower end of the value chain. 

The government has reiterated its support for e-commerce in underdeveloped rural areas. The Ministry of Commerce announced in October 2016 that "policy support will be given to small online retailers ... to lower their operational costs." 

More will be done to support and nurture e-commerce businesses operating in rural regions, and training programs will be offered to small business owners, according to the ministry's website. 

As part of the Chinese government's goal to eliminate poverty by 2020, it has created more than one thousand "Taobao villages" over the past decade. 

Online sales revenue in 105 national-level poverty-stricken counties, including the model districts lauded by the Ministry of Commerce, reached 220 million yuan on average in 2016. 

E-commerce plays a key role in poverty reduction, by not just giving a man a fish, but also teaching him how to fish, said Liu Qiangdong, chairman of JD.com. 

Online business owners in rural China topped 8.11 million in 2016, creating over 20 million jobs. 

Rural Internet users rose to 201 million, or 27.4 percent of the nation's total. 

E-commerce has changed people's lives and their ways of thinking in rural China. Inspired by this good momentum, it is good to see talented people returning to their rural hometowns to start new businesses, said Li Yongjian with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Source: China Daily. Date: 2017-07-11

Belarus gets access for meat exports to China: Belarusian official

Belarus has got the right to supply beef and poultry to China, Belarusian Agriculture and Food Deputy Minister Alexander Subbotin said on Monday.

Subbotin made the remarks to the press prior to the negotiations between Belarusian Agriculture and Food Minister Leonid Zayats and Director of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine Zhi Shuping.

"Today 21 Belarusian beef manufacturers and 5 poultry factories will be authorized to export products to China", Subbotin said, adding that 36 Belarusian enterprises had been earlier authorized to sell milk into China.

The deputy minister said that the next step in developing the cooperation with China will be the certification of Belarusian enterprises for the supply of freshwater fish.

For his part, Zhi Shuping described Belarus-China relations as a friendly strategic partnership.

"Belarus-China trade is thriving. We would like to see Belarus' safe and high-quality products on our market," he stressed.

Two protocols were signed on permission for deliveries of Belarusian frozen beef and poultry to China, as well as a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in providing safety when importing and exporting food products between China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and Belarus' Agriculture and Food Ministry.

Source: Xinhua. Date: 2017-07-11

China to buy more Cambodian rubber

China is expected to purchase 300,000 tonnes of rubber from Cambodia in 2018, according to a commerce ministry statement.

Following a meeting last week between the Ministry of Commerce and Chinese and Japanese delegations, the ministry released a statement confirming that China is expected to purchase 300,000 tonnes of rubber from Cambodia in 2018.

“Recently, Shaanxi, China, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Cambodia to buy 300,000 tonnes of Cambodian rubber,” the statement said. “China is expected to begin importing it in 2018.”

Land for cultivating rubber has increased to about 437,000 hectares, 64 percent of which is controlled by rubber industry firms and the rest by family-run operations, according to the Agriculture Ministry. Cambodia exported about 50,000 tonnes of rubber in the first quarter of 2017.

The rubber price on the global market had dropped to between $1,600 and $1,700 per tonne from $2,400 in January and February.

At present, the government levies $50 in tax duty per tonne of rubber exported if the price is from $1,000 to $2,000 per tonne, and $100 of tax duty per tonne of rubber if the export price is above $2,000 per tonne. It takes zero tax if the price is below $1,000 per tonne.

Separately, Cambodia's Trade Centre in Xi’an city, Shaanxi province, is actively displaying Cambodian products to Chinese customers. The centre has packed 5,000 tonnes of rice purchased from Cambodia without tariffs into small packages for retail sale in the Free Trade Area in Shaanxi province.

Source: Khmer Times. Date: 2017-07-10

US, Canada vie to satisfy China's voracious appetite for pork

Canada has overtaken the United States as the top North American supplier of pork to China as farmers and meat packers in both nations battle for lucrative shares of the biggest global market.

Canada's pork sales to China, after a sharp rise last year, exceeded those of the US in the first quarter of 2017.

That's only happened a handful of times in two decades, according to US and Canadian government data.

Rising affluence is driving China's voracious appetite for pork, including parts of the pig－feet, elbows, innards－which command little value in most countries.

Nevertheless, it doesn't mean the productivity of farms in China has been reduced.

According to the data of the Food and Agriculture Organization, China, which is both the leading producer and the largest consumer of pork, rising pork consumption has led the sellers to take up the slack in supply by importing.

In fact, the imported pork products are not as popular as the imported beef in China. Some consumers have even never heard of imported pork.

"The fresh pork is local production, we don't have any imported pork supply," said Ito Yokado Beijing store official who is in charge of the store's fresh pork supply.

Beijing Central Key Trading Co Ltd, a Beijing-based food importer, said that the competitive price of imported pork was the major reason for it to do the business. The imported meat must be frozen during the transportation as a precondition, therefore the price is much lower than the fresh meat.

Drug-free exports

Canadian farmers have almost completely removed the growth drug ractopamine from their pigs' diet, largely because it is banned in China, which consumes half the world's pork.

In contrast, the US exports to China are limited because only about half of the nation's herd has been weaned off the drug, according to US hog producers, meat packers and animal feed dealers.

But major US-based firms are now moving to produce more ractopamine-free hogs－including the three biggest pork producers, Smithfield Foods, Seaboard Foods, a division of Seaboard Corp, and Triumph Foods, a hog farmer cooperative.

The rise of Canada's pork exports underscores the power of the gargantuan Chinese market to influence agricultural practices and profits in supplier countries worldwide.

As recently as 2013, annual US pork sales to China, some 333,000 metric tons, more than doubled Canada's shipments of 161,000 tons.

That's the same year Canada's hog industry started to remove ractopamine, best known as Eli Lilly & Co product Paylean.

In the first quarter of this year, Canada shipped nearly 93,000 tons of pork to China, on pace to hit 372,000 tons annually. That eclipsed the 87,500 tons that the US shipped, according to data from both governments.

The European Union, which has long banned ractopamine, is among China's top foreign pork suppliers, exporting 393,365 tons in the first quarter.

Chinese authorities banned the use of ractopamine in livestock in 2002. They say meat raised with the drug can cause nausea and diarrhea in people and be life-threatening to sufferers of heart disease.

US stance odd

The US Food and Drug Administration, however, did not see the same dangers when it approved ractopamine in 1999, concluding that it would "not have a significant impact on the human environment".

The FDA's stance has drawn some criticism, including a 2014 lawsuit by environmental groups alleging the agency has not fully examined the drug's impact. The suit was later dismissed on technical grounds but is being appealed.

Hog farmer and rancher groups defend ractopamine use, saying it allows them to grow livestock more efficiently, with less feed, said Dave Warner, spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council. Canadian health authorities also allow consumption of pork from hogs raised with the drug.

The China market is so lucrative that Canada's HyLife started selling pork online directly to Chinese consumers last year.

The small Manitoba processor hawks pig feet and elbows on e-commerce site JD.com, a competitor of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

"They're big online buyers," said Claude Vielfaure, HyLife's chief operating officer. "You try to move your pork all kinds of ways."

Costly by-products

Rising Chinese pork demand has driven up prices for by-products including pigs' feet, kidneys and livers.

Pigs feet sell for more than $1.85 per kilogram－about double their value two years ago, said Richard Davies, executive vice-president of sales and marketing at Olymel, one of Canada's biggest pork packers.

Selling by-products can squeeze another $10 per pig from a carcass that otherwise earns packers about $180, said Ray Price, president of Alberta-based processor Sunterra Meats.

Stewed pigs' feet with white beans is a famous dish from Sichuan province, one of China's culinary capitals, while blood sausage, made from intestines and cooked with pickled vegetables, is a traditional winter dish in the Northeast.

Chinese consumers enjoy the strong flavor of offal－internal organs and entrails. In Beijing, stir-fried pig's liver with vegetables is common on dinner tables and known for its nutritional value.

In all, China consumed 55 million tons of pork last year. Although that is the lowest total in four years, imports are rising fast because millions of China's small-scale farmers have left the pork business in recent years because of falling prices.

In fact, it did not lead to shortage of pork at the consumer level. The huge domestic demand of pork ensured pork was imported.

Chinese dietary structure is such that many dishes are made from pork. It is certain that the market demand for pork is much more than that for beef and mutton, according to Beijing Central Key Trading Co Ltd.

China key to trade

China became Quebec-based Olymel's biggest export market last year, vaulting over the US and Japan. It plans to open a sales office in China as early as next year.

"Just a tweak in that market can change the game for anyone in the world," Davies said.

US pork producers have moved more slowly than their Canadian competitors to raise ractopamine-free pigs, primarily because the US is the world's third-biggest domestic market for pork.

Precisely because of that reason, Beijing Central Key cut its imports from the US, the company said. It also made it clear that any import of the pork containing this drug is not its priority.

Tyson Foods Inc and Hormel Foods Corp continue to process hogs that were fed ractopamine in part because they do not raise their own pigs.

Hormel's hog supply "comes from more than 500 family farms", the company spokesman said, many of which use the growth drug.

US firms can also send pork from ractopamine-fed hogs to Mexico and Japan, the top US pork export markets.

But many US-based suppliers are nonetheless scrambling to take advantage of Chinese demand for ractopamine-free pork.

Smithfield, the world's biggest pork producer and a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed WH Group, has raised most of its hogs without the drug for more than two years, a spokeswoman said.

As the top exporter of pork to China, Smithfield firm shipped 300,000 tons there from the US and Europe last year.

The second-and third-biggest US pork producers－Seaboard and Triumph－are jointly opening a pork processing plant in July in Sioux City, Iowa, where nearly all hogs slaughtered will be ractopamine-free, according to local hog producers and animal feed mills.

Building dedicated ractopamine-free pork plants allows processors to limit risk of China rejecting shipments that contain trace amounts of the drug.

Seaboard declined to comment about ractopamine. Triumph did not respond to requests for comment.

The Cooperative Farmers Elevator in Ocheydan, Iowa, is constructing a new feed mill that by 2018 will produce only ractopamine-free animal feed.

"It was requested from some of the customers we deal with," said Steve Peterson, the cooperative's vice-president of feed. "The one that is pushing the hardest is Seaboard."

US hog producer Prestage Farms also is planning a new Iowa slaughterhouse for as many as 10,000 ractopamine-free hogs annually by 2018, said Ron Prestage, its president.

With the US hogs in record supply, foreign demand is essential to profits, Prestage said.

"When we have plentiful hogs, as we do today, packers prefer not to have ractopamine," Prestage said. "They want to be able to export as much product as they can."

Source: China Daily. Date: 2017-07-10

Sewage treatment firms eye opportunities in China

CHANGZHOU - Global sewage and water treatment firms are eyeing opportunities in an unsavoury place: a growing pile of waste in China, the world's most populous nation.

The country has been for years battling contamination from fertiliser run-offs, heavy metals and untreated sewage. A survey in 2015 showed that nearly two-thirds of China's underground water and a third of its surface water was unfit for human contact.

To reverse this, China has pledged to lay 126,000km of new sewage pipes by 2020, enough to circle the globe three times, and raise urban wastewater treatment by 50 million cubic m a day, equal to 20,000 Olympic-size pools.

This has opened the floodgates to sewage specialists, such as Israel's Emefcy, RWL Water - controlled by Estee Lauder's Mr Ron Lauder, and France's Veolia, who want to grab a share of the market, with China's annual environmental spend estimated at 3 trillion yuan (S$609 billion) over the next five years.

Mr Tong Weidong, vice-chairman of China's legal work commission, said: "Right now, the problem of wastewater from agriculture and the countryside is very serious and wastewater treatment work is a weak link."

Recently, there were reports of villages dumping sewage into the reservoir of the Three Gorges Dam, the world's biggest power station, spanning the Yangtze River in central Hubei province.

Local officials will be forced to improve sewage capacity under new legislation that makes them directly responsible for water quality.

Cities need to hike treatment rates to 95 per cent by 2020 from 92 per cent in 2015, while rural regions in central and western China need to reach 50 per cent.

Mr Yong Wong Jin, the chief executive for Emefcy in China, said: "The market is massive."

It estimates the potential in Beijing and nearby provinces at more than US$1 billion(S$1.4 billion).

Foreign players have been in China for a while - such as Veolia, which has water projects across the country - but the focus on a large-scale clean-up has gained impetus only recently. China's latest five-year plan, released in 2016, emphasises tackling pollution, while in an action plan published in 2015 the government vowed to improve water quality nationwide by 2030, pledging to spend billions of dollars.

The local authorities, meanwhile, have struggled to fund their plans, opening the door for more private-sector involvement.

Emefcy plans to put eight small-scale sewage treatment units into operation in China by the end of this year and is building a local factory, saying its small-scale units can treat 20,000 litres a day, take two months to install and have significantly lower energy costs, making them ideal for the rural market.

General manager Xue Xiaohu at Jiangsu Greenway, which sells water treatment technology to the textiles industry, said stricter environmental standards are drawing in companies of all sizes, but big state-owned firms still dominate major projects.

China has promised to give environmentally friendly projects a leg-up by providing banks with more incentives to lend and encouraging green financing.

Offshore players have the added hurdle of navigating local rules and typically also need to team up with local partners. "There are challenges in dealing with local governments and that is where our partners kick in," said Mr Yong from Emefcy, which has a number of Chinese partners, including Zhejiang Provincial Energy Group and Jiangsu Jinzi.

Source: Reuters. Date: 2017-07-10