THE processing of beans, corn, potatoes, milk and meat are among a dozen of key food-processing industries that China will work hard to promote over the next five years, a senior Chinese economic official said Wednesday.

　　Zhang Guobao, vice minister in charge of the State Development Planning Commission (SDPC), said that the key food-processing industries will also include sugar refinement, storage and transport, beverage, convenience food, aquatic product processing and package machine building.

　　Zhang told the opening session of the International Symposium on Developmental Strategy in the Processing of Agricultural Products-Food Industry that it is high time China pushed forward with its own food processing industry.

　　The development of food processing industries, especially the agricultural product processing industry, not only serves the daily needs of Chinese citizens and stimulates domestic consumption, but also helps restructure the farming industry and increase the income of farmers.

　　"It's what we can do to enhance the competitiveness of Chinese agriculture against the backdrop of economic globalization," he said.

　　The SDPC, the State Economic and Trade Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture jointly launched a five-year national program in March, aiming at developing the food industry. The program stresses that China will expedite the restructuring of the food processing industry and make it a "new growing point" for its economy, Zhang said.

　　According to statistics from the China Federation of Light Industries, between 1980 and 2000, the annual average growth rate of the Chinese food processing industry was 13.1 percent and the gross value of industrial output in 2001 was 926 billion yuan (US$115 billion), an increase of 12.12 percent year on year.