China exported more than 4 billion U.S. dollars of farm
machinery in 2007, an increase of 50 percent year on year, an
industry association said here on Wednesday.
Output value of the country's farm machinery industry totaled
150 billion yuan (about 20.7 billion U.S. dollars), up 18 percent
year on year, said China Association of Agricultural Machinery
Manufacturers Chairman Gao Yuanen.
Net profit for the industry hit 7 billion yuan in 2007, an
increase of 38 percent year on year, he said.
China's huge farm machinery market attracted machinery giants
from Italy, the Republic of Korea and the United States, among
others.
With government subsidies for purchasing, the country's
agricultural machinery industry has developed at an annual rate of
30 percent from 2004 to 2006.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the amount of
subsidies by the central government rose from 300 million yuan in
2005 to 600 million yuan in 2006. Funds arranged by localities
reached 1.06 billion yuan.
A survey also revealed that only 35.9 percent of farm work, such
as ploughing, sowing and harvesting, nationwide is done by machine
at present.
Industry output is expected to hit 170 billion yuan this year,
Gao forecast.
(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2008)
