Neighboring Shanghai, the largest metropolis of China, Zhejiang Province is situated on the southern flank of the Yangtze River Delta on the southeastern coast of China. The province covers an area of 101,800 square kilometers, some 1.06% of the total territory of the country. The topography of the province varies higher in southwest and lower in northeast, indicating that 70% of the total area are mountains and hills, 10% are rivers and lakes, and 20% is arable land. Presently having a population of 47.196 million, it owns 1.6 million ha. of farmland, of which 1.33 million ha. are paddy field and 270,000 ha. are dry land, showing only 0.03 ha. per capita of cultivated land which is less than one half of 0.08 ha. per capita in the country. With a coastline of 6,500 km, the province includes a broad area of sea and 3,061 islands, forming the biggest fishing farm in the country. Located in subtropical and monsoon climatic zone, Zhejiang Province enjoys four distinct seasons, plentiful sunshine and abundant resources. The average temperature over the year is between 15-18 ≧ , lowest in January and highest in July. It on average receives 1,000-2,000 mm of precipitation each year, mainly in May and June. Total amount of water reaches 93.7 billion m3 ,4th in the country according to the unit area of water. With 60% of the forest coverage and over 3800 discovered plants, the province is called "Treasure House of Plant in Southeastern China".
Zhejiang Province is one of the key provinces vital in economic development. Private economy plays an important role in developing the provincial economy. Zhejiang is entitled "the Biggest Market Province in China", with the commodities nearly covering all aspects of daily life and production.
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Zhejiang Province is a comprehensive agricultural area in all-round development of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery. Paddy rice takes the first place in grain production. In 2005, the total sowing area of grain was 1.51 million ha. and its total output was 8.15 million tons. Cash crops mainly are mulberry and silkworm, tea, citrus, cotton, sugarcane, rapeseed, vegetables, edible fungi and flowers. Inn 2004, tea output is 139,000 tons, being ahead in the country, and silkworm cocoon is 84,000 tons, ranking the third. The yield of citrus fruits is 2.01 million tons, which is at the forth place. Total area of vegatables is 661,000 ha and its output is 17.69 million tons. The production of edible fungi is 700,000 tons. The province is one of the key pig production base in the country, with 18.93 million heads of pigs annually marketed. Bee honey yields 74,000 tons yearly.
For these years, in order to create "Green Zhejiang", develop efficiency agriculture and export-oriented economy with focus on agro-product processing, the province has been devoting itself to improving agricultural infrastructure facilities, effectively exploiting and utilizing agricultural resources, as well as accelerating the strategic adjustment of agricultural structure. The agricultural industrialized operation has been promoted,
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The year 2005 saw the total production value of 142.06 billion yuan of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, and the export value of US$ 5.34 billion of agro-products and their processed products, which ranked third in the nation.
Exported agro-products vary 30 sorts and more than 1000 varieties, with export amount totalling US$ 5.0 billion. The export value of vegetables, tea, poultry feather and eider down, bee products, frozen shrimp meat, canned food, animal fur and wool products, as well as wood products are over US$100 million. Among these, the exportation of tea, canned citrus fruits, feather and eider down, bee products, rabbit wool, rush and its products take the first place in China.
There are 2500 agro-product export enterprises in Zhejiang Province. Zhejiang Provincial Association of Agro-product Import and Export Enterprises has been founded to coordinate the importation and exportation for agro-products.
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