An international agricultural products trade center will be built in the western part of Shanghai, the Shanghai Agricultural Commission announced yesterday.

The center will be the biggest of its kind in the Yangtze Delta region and will cover all agricultural products of China.

The center is expected to be open to the public before 2010, and construction will begin on Monday.

As an international trade center, it will cooperate with a foreign agricultural products market in Paris and export domestic products overseas, officials with the commission said.

Many domestic regions and foreign countries are considering cooperation agreements with the center.

The aim is to turn Shanghai into an agricultural products hub, officials said.

The potential consumer market is huge as many international purchasers reside in the city.

(Shanghai Daily October 26, 2007)