PM Butkevičius invites China to send food experts to Lithuania

“We were informed earlier that they might come in fall. I’ve asked today to do that earlier,” he told reporters after a meeting with Zhang Gaoli in Vilnius on Sunday.

Butkevičius believes that checks by food experts from China will be followed by the issue of authorization for the Lithuanian companies to export their dairy and food products to China.

“He [China’s deputy prime minister] understands perfectly well that our dairy and food products are high quality and we hope that checks by experts will be followed by the issue of certificates and authorizations for the exports of dairy and food products,” Butkevičius said, adding that the Chinese official had promised that experts would be sent to Lithuania in the near future.

Lithuania has been trying to agree with China on the exports of meat and dairy products for several years.

According to Butkevičius, his discussion with the Chinese deputy prime minister also involved potential investment in infrastructure and ways to improve the efficiency of the container shuttle train Saulė.

“We talked about better use of certain routes, in particular the Saulė, between China … and the port of Klaipėda, which could become a regional hub for the distribution of freight to other Baltic countries, Scandinavia, Eastern and Western Europe,” the Lithuanian government leader said.

Two high-ranking officials also talked about student exchanges.