Karen Ross (center), secretary of the California Food and Agriculture Department, visits California Week, which was held Shanghai's downtown area on Wednesday. Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn

California officials are seeking trading cooperation with Shanghai in the agricultural sector.

"We want more Californian farm products to be sold in China," said Karen Ross, secretary of the Food and Agriculture Department in California.

She made the remarks at California Week, a promotional campaign featuring California food, products, tourism and education, which was launched by the Shanghai Oriental Pearl International Communication Co Ltd and the Xanadu Enterprise Shanghai Ltd at the city's downtown area on Wednesday.

California sold $1.7 billion worth of wine, fruit and other farm products to China last year.

"The export trend is expected to go up this year," Ross said.

The delegation consisting of chief executive officers from 18 enterprises came to the city on the even of the launch of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone to learn more about Shanghai and to become better known to more Chinese customers, she said.

The group visited the city's agricultural commission after arriving earlier this week and discussed ways to cooperate in farm production and the use of clean water and clean energy.

"Discussion is under way and both are seeking partners," she said, adding that "It's a good beginning and projects could be launched in the near future if things go smoothly."