(Yicai Global) July 17 -- Twenty-odd Chinese and US enterprises struck agreements worth USD5.012 billion in Des Moines, Iowa, the US on July 13, per which Chinese firms will import 12.53 million tons of soybeans and 371 tons of pork and beef from the US companies, official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Nearly 100 officials and enterprise representatives from China and the US attended the signing ceremony.

Addressing the gathering, Xu Hai, science and technology attaché for the China's Consulate in Chicago, said Chinese and US presidents agreed in their April meeting to execute the '100-Day Action Plan' of US-China economic cooperation, with the contract signing on the agricultural product trade seen as one of the concrete measures that materialized from the summit meeting between President Xi and his US counterpart.

As urbanization develops and the middle class burgeons, China's consumer market will bloat, Xu added. Huge growth potential thus beckons future US exports to the country.

China's opening to US beef is a very exciting development for the state of Iowa, said Adam Gregg, its lieutenant governor. Iowa Governor Reynolds will lead a state agricultural trade delegation on a visit to China from July 19 to July 28, meeting the while with his predecessor Terry Branstad, who should be installed in Beijing as incoming US ambassador by then. Branstad has also been pushing US produce to Chinese eaters.

The signing event is co-hosted by the China Chamber of Commerce of Foodstuffs and Native Produce (CCCFNA) and the US Soybean Export Council.

"With the rise of consumerism in China, and as the trade environment created by the two countries grows better, the potential for cooperation between the two will be huge," said Bian Zhenhu, CCCFNA's president.