Interview: COFCO VP says company seeks larger global role

COFCO, the China's leading foodstuffs conglomerate, will continue its pace toward a more global role by increasing foreign investment.
But COFCO Vice President Chi Jingtao said the group will implement the process based on mutual-trust and win-win principles.
Chi spoke Wednesday after sealing the acquisition of a quality French winery.
Chi told Xinhua in Bordeaux, the site of the signing ceremony of the acquisition, that it was important COFCO to purchase the Chateau de Viaud, one of the oldest wineries in the Bordeaux region, with a history dating back to the mid-15th century.
Speaking highly of the history and quality of the French appellation and Viaud's advanced management, Chi said, the acquisition ameliorated the production chain of COFCO, and would promote the globalization of COFCO Wines & Spirits branch and its Great Wall brand.
"All local employees can maintain their daily work in vineries and wineries of Viaud after COFCO joins the planting, brewing and marketing operations," Chi said.
He said the winery's brands and major products will also remain and be developed based on its local advantages.
After years of development and reform, COFCO has explored quality winery and vinery bases in different provinces in China along a belt at approximately 40 degrees north latitude, notably the "golden line of wine production," and sett itself as the biggest Chinese wine producer.
Boosted by China's fast economic growth, wine consumption in China has surged in recent years. A recent study showed that each Chinese person consumes an average of 0.75 liters of wine each year, a number that was expected to grow 20 percent by 2014.
The research also said that China has become the world's seventh biggest producer of wine and forecast a 77 percent growth in output in China by 2014.
In the context that Chinese consumers are demanding more import wines, an increasing number of international wine producers target China's market, intensifying the competition to possess the high end of wine industry. The COFCO vice-president confirmed the participation of the race against that background.
"Joining global competition" and "focusing on appellations, products and brands" are COFCO's developing strategies, which were mirrored in the recent acquisition of part of Chile's Bisquertt winery and Wednesday's deal for French Chateau de Viaud, Chi said.
COFCO hopes to combine foreign appellation's advantages in planting, vinification and brands' attraction with the Chinese brand Great Wall, Chi said.
"Complying with principles of integrity and fairness with respect to mutual benefit and win-win rules, COFCO will take these purchases as opportunities to continue to foster cooperation with local wine industries in Chile and France, in a bid to boost common development for both sides," Chi added.
He said COFCO will play a "trailblazer" role in expanding its foreign investment in the wines and spirits industry.
COFCO will place several wineries in Australia and the United States into its future acquisition list, Chi said.
Source:Xinhua