Negotiations for a quarantine agreement between China and Ukraine, which will enable Ukrainian corn to enter the Chinese market, are likely to be held during the visit of the Ukrainian finance minister to China, which is expected within two months.

The two governments are still working on the schedule for the visit of Yuriy Kolobov, said Oleg Bakhmatyuk, chairman of the board of Ukrlandfarming Plc, the largest Ukrainian agro-industrial company, who is also a member of the accompanying delegation.

He also said there is hope that the two sides could sign the agreement, "given their common interests", referring to Ukraine's need to enter the Chinese market and China's growing demand for corn as animal fodder in the booming livestock industry.

Ukrlandfarming Plc owns the largest land bank in Ukraine, totaling almost 500,000 hectares, and it has a storage capacity of more than 1 million tons.

In 2010, it produced about 3 percent of Ukraine's grain and 8.6 percent of its sugar.

The company is working with the Singapore-based Wilmar International Ltd, a major agribusiness group in Asia, to accomplish the first shipment of 50,000 metric tons of Ukrainian corn and wheat to China.

But that shipment can't take place without a bilateral quarantine agreement, said George Kikvadze, the company's chief investment officer.

It is also in talks to buy Ukrainian corn with the State-owned conglomerate China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corp, which holds a large portion of the nation's corn import quota and has so far mainly imported US corn.

"Cooperation with COFCO is only a matter of time," Kikvadze said.

China's corn imports have risen steadily in recent years. During the first quarter of this year, imports stood at 1.74 million tons, equivalent to the total import amount of 2011, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

A tractor ploughs a field before seeding on a farm in the Chernigov region in Ukraine. Analysts said corn imported from Ukraine may prove popular in the Chinese market given its lower price compared with US corn and the fact that it is not genetically modified. [Photo/Bloomberg]

Industry analysts estimate this year's imports at between 3 million and 4 million tons. Most of China's current corn imports come from the United States.

Analysts said corn from Ukraine could help reduce China's reliance on the US, and it may prove popular in the Chinese market given its lower price and the fact that it is not genetically modified.

But there are other factors. As agricultural trade plays an increasingly important role in balancing China-US trade, "large State-owned companies are likely to stick to corn from the US because of political reasons", said Ma Wenfeng, a senior analyst at Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant Ltd.

The Ukrainian company looks forward to exporting other farm products to China.

Last month, it signed agreement on projects totaling more than $4 billion with China National Machinery Industry Corp to boost the production capacity of pork and chicken and improve storage facilities and logistics infrastructure. The company expects to export all the added production to China.

Contact the writer at zhousiyu@chinadaily.com.cn