Published by ChinaMNC · Linwei

Yangling Agri-Expos Open: What Foreign Founders in Agritech Should Note

The 33rd China Yangling Agricultural Hi-Tech Fair and the 2026 SCO Agricultural Expo opened in Yangling on October 25, with foreign ministers and envoys attending. Here is a practical reading for foreign founders weighing agritech opportunities in China.

Two Agricultural Expos Open in Yangling

On October 25, the 33rd China Yangling Agricultural Hi-Tech Fair (often shortened to Yangling Agri-Fair) and the 2026 SCO Agricultural Expo opened in the Yangling Demonstration Zone. For foreign founders building businesses in agritech, agricultural inputs, food processing or cross-border agricultural trade, the opening ceremony offers a useful signal of where Chinese policy attention and international participation currently sit.

The event was announced by Wang Guangqian, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of the 11th National Committee of the China Association for Science and Technology, who delivered a keynote address. Zhao Yide, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Director of the Standing Committee of the Shaanxi Provincial People's Congress, spoke. Governor Zhao Gang presided over the ceremony.

Who Attended

The ceremony drew a notable international presence, which matters for founders assessing partnership and market-entry channels:

• Aishirbayev, Governor of Chuy Region, Kyrgyzstan, attended, alongside Shaanxi provincial leaders Xu Xinrong and Xing Shanping.
• Pan Wenbo, Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs; Mi Dihong, Deputy Secretary-General of the SCO; Mostafa, Vice Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation of Egypt; and Wang Li, Vice Chairman of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Government, delivered remarks.
• Representatives from national and international organizations attended, including vice ministers and senior officials from Iran, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Cambodia and Burundi; the ambassadors of Belarus and the Maldives to China; a deputy governor of Kyzylorda Region, Kazakhstan; a deputy secretary of Pakistan's Ministry of Food Security and Research; a deputy secretary-general of the China-Central Asia mechanism; a charge d'affaires of the Sri Lankan embassy; a director of the Eurasian Economic Commission's agro-industrial policy department; and a deputy director of the FAO's Land and Water Division.

Policy Priorities Relevant to Agritech Founders

Wang Guangqian's remarks set out several priorities that map directly onto business opportunities. He noted that agricultural and rural modernization bears on the overall trajectory of Chinese modernization, and referenced the fourth plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on accelerating agricultural and rural modernization and advancing rural revitalization.

He cited President Xi Jinping's emphasis that agriculture's path lies in modernization, and that the key to agricultural modernization is scientific and technological progress and innovation. This year's No. 1 Central Document, he said, calls for developing agricultural new quality productive forces suited to local conditions and promoting the integration of artificial intelligence with agricultural development.

The specific directions he outlined included:

• Seed industry: deepening the seed industry revitalization action, accelerating the breeding and promotion of breakthrough varieties, and advancing the industrialization of biological breeding.
• Extension services: reforming and building the grassroots agricultural technology extension system so that scientific results reach villages and households.
• Scale and inclusion: developing appropriately scaled agricultural operations and linking smallholders with modern agriculture.
• Green technology: promoting green production and water-saving irrigation, and developing ecological, low-carbon agriculture.
• Processing: advancing deep processing of agricultural products and whole-chain development, with the aim of building agriculture into a modernized large industry.

He also described the "core demonstration, driving the arid regions, serving the whole country" positioning and called for strengthening cooperation with regional countries in modern agriculture. For founders, these are the thematic areas where Chinese counterparts are most likely to be receptive to foreign technology, equipment and expertise.

Shaanxi's Stated Intentions

Zhao Yide said President Xi has high expectations for both expos. He noted that Shaanxi has been pursuing the goals of building a strong agricultural province and a "national team" in distinctive modern agriculture, using the two expos as a catalyst to build strategic scientific and technological capacity in agriculture and to improve mechanisms for university-local government-enterprise collaborative commercialization.

Looking toward the 15th Five-Year Plan period, he said the province is willing to use the expos as a link to deepen exchanges and cooperation, building bridges for scientific and technological interaction, paths for industrial collaboration and foundations for food security.

What Was Launched and Discussed

At the ceremony, Sun Chuanfan, Director of the China Rural Technology Development Center, released the 2026 China Arid Region Agricultural Technology Development Report. Keynote speeches followed from Zhai Huqu, former President of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Wei Houkai, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and researcher at its Rural Development Institute; and Bai Shanlin, Senior Vice Chairman of CP Group's agro-industry and food business in China.

Representatives of relevant national ministries and commissions, some provincial and regional governments, provincial departments, universities and enterprises attended. Before the ceremony, participating leaders toured some exhibition halls.

Exhibition Details

The Yangling Agri-Fair runs for five days under the theme "New Quality Productive Forces, A New Future for Agriculture." Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region serves as the theme province and Yulin City as the theme city. Exhibitions are organized in four sections: indoor, field, cloud and overseas, with total exhibition area of 140,000 square meters. Side events include a seed industry innovation forum, an agricultural science and technology forum, a rural revitalization forum and matchmaking for production and sales under the "hundred counties, hundred products" program.

The concurrent 2026 SCO Agricultural Expo carries the theme "Deepening Practical Cooperation, Jointly Drawing a Development Blueprint." Twenty-seven SCO countries are exhibiting, with Egypt as the theme country. It features specialized exhibitions including an SCO national agriculture exhibition, an agricultural high-tech achievement exhibition and a cross-border commodity consumption experience exhibition, along with an SCO modern agriculture development roundtable and an agricultural cooperation and development conference.

Practical Takeaways for Foreign Founders

For founders considering a Chinese entity, the practical value of such events lies in the access they provide. The presence of agriculture and food-processing enterprises, research institutions and provincial governments creates opportunities to identify local partners, licensing counterparts or joint-venture candidates before committing to registration and capital outlay.

Note that the source does not specify registration procedures, investment incentives or tax treatment tied to the expos. Founders should treat participation as a relationship-building and market-intelligence step, and confirm any commercial terms, entity structure and regulatory requirements through qualified local advisers.

This summary is based on information published by the relevant Chinese government website and is general information, not legal or tax advice.