Mandelson reveals global agri-vision

GLOBALISATION is not about the end of manufacturing or farming in Europe, but both will change, European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said during an address in Lisbon.

He said that by 2010, there will be 200 million people in China with the equivalent of a European middle-class income. Consumer spending in urban China is rising by 10-12% every year.

That is a market bigger than France, Germany and Spain combined, with an estimated spending power on high-value goods of €1 trillion a year by 2010. And the Indian middle class will in time be about the same size, and growing.

Mr Mandelson said in a new global environment, brand identity and quality will be everything.