Administrator Liu: Innovation-Led Cooperation Crucial to Reinforce Food Security

Closing the gap between policy commitments and real-world food system resilience is emerging as a priority for APEC economies, officials said earlier this week as the Policy Partnership on Food Security convened its 2026 plenary meeting in Guangzhou.

“To build a resilient Asia-Pacific food system, we should take a systematic approach and promote cooperation across the entire grain chain, from farm to table,” said Liu Huanxin, Administrator of China’s National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration in his opening remarks at the meeting.“This requires coordinated action across production, procurement, storage, processing and marketing.”

“APEC economies should work together to address climate change, safeguard grain production capacity, improve market circulation and deepen grain trade cooperation,” Liu added. “At the same time, we must advance food conservation, reduce food loss and waste, and promote nutritious and healthy diets.”

Highlighting innovation and digitalization as a second pillar, Liu said rapid advances in digital technology and artificial intelligence are reshaping food systems and creating new opportunities for resilience.

“A new round of technological revolution is accelerating,” he said. “Asia-Pacific economies should strengthen technical exchanges and harness digital and intelligent technologies to build new competitiveness and new momentum for food security.”

Liu also underscored the importance of win-win cooperation and public-private partnerships to translate policy into real-world outcomes.

“Food system transformation requires collective responses from governments, businesses and all sectors of society,” he said. “China stands ready to work with APEC economies to build institutional platforms for policy dialogue, information sharing and project cooperation, and to support experience sharing among scientific, technical and management professionals.”

China’s approach, Liu said, has delivered sustained gains despite resource constraints. With less than 10 percent of the world’s arable land and 6 percent of its freshwater resources, China feeds nearly one-fifth of the global population. National grain output has remained above 650 million tons for nine consecutive years and exceeded 700 million tons in both 2024 and 2025, with per-capita grain availability reaching around 500 kilograms.

The meeting brought together officials, experts and business representatives from APEC economies to advance implementation of the Food Security Roadmap 2030, including economies’ progress report and discussions on digitalization, innovation and food system resilience.

“We are generating strong ideas to advance our goals, but moving ideas from theory to practice remains the real challenge,” said Han Jizhi, Chair of the APEC Policy Partnership on Food Security.

“We are making substantial progress in consolidating food supply chains, but food security and nutrition issues will not be solved with a single commitment,” Han added. “This work requires sustained effort. Working together, even small steps can make a meaningful difference and deliver real, lasting change.”