ATLANTA, the United States, April 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. farmers "need something quick" to be done about a trade deal with China, and they can not afford to lose such a large market, a U.S. agriculture industry leader recently said.
"We really need to work that out because that's such a huge market for us," Will Bentley, president of the Georgia Agribusiness Council (GAC), told Xinhua here. But "it's planting time in Georgia. So we need something quick."
"You (referring to China) have a growing economy and you have more and more consumers that are able to pay for high quality products, and we produce high quality products across all of the agriculture. So it's a big deal for us," said Bentley.
Georgia exports to China have grown by 41 percent since 2008, exceeding 2.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, and among the top exports were civilian aircraft, chemical wood pulp, Kraft paper and paperboard, medical instruments, and wood, according to the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
"We know how important that relationship is to us in the state of Georgia specifically," he said. "Overall about 20 percent of agricultural income comes from exports. With China being a huge partner, that number is even higher."
Local farmers' income in the past years has been decreasing, and "the only way out of that is through increased trade," he said. "We really want to see our trade grow with China."
The U.S. trade friction with China has already hurt farmers in Georgia and throughout the country, Bentley said.
Taking pecan growers as an example, he said, "China has been one of their biggest customers and over 50 percent of what they were doing was specifically going into China."
However, "the market has decreased because of some of the tariffs," the GAC leader added. "So it's vitally important for us to figure this thing (trade deal) out."
