In the exhibition hall of the Zhumadian International Convention and Exhibition Center in Henan, a buyer from Pakistan gave a thumbs-up and said in less-than-perfect Henan dialect, "Zhumadian, zhong!" delighting everyone nearby. From September 22 to 24, the 28th China Agricultural Products Processing Industry Investment and Trade Fair, known as the China Agricultural Processing Expo, was held here.

Local specialties were transformed into high-value-added goods, and smart agricultural machinery and new processing technologies were showcased together, reflecting a new picture of an ever-extending agricultural processing chain, deepening open economic and trade cooperation, and agricultural technology rapidly empowering rural industry.

In one corner of Hall E, steam rose in front of the "Feijie Chaoshan Beef Balls" booth in Yicheng District, Zhumadian, where residents lined up to taste the samples. "The texture is firm and springy, and you can taste that the ingredients are real," one resident said after taking a bite, surprise flashing in his eyes.

Behind the bustling stall lies the confidence of Zhumadian's agricultural processing industry. Hall C is the local exhibition area, where the small-mill sesame oil at the Zhengdao Oil Industry booth still uses the traditional water extraction method. Zhengyang peanuts, Biyang flower mushrooms, and Pingyu daylilies are no longer just primary local specialties harvested from the fields, but have become distinctive consumer goods sold across the country after deep processing and standardized packaging.

"The expo visually demonstrates the industrial transformation brought by 'grain heads to food tails, livestock heads to meat tails, and farm heads to industrial tails,'" said Cai Xinting, director of the Zhumadian Agricultural Foreign Cooperation and Exchange Center, pointing to the dazzling array of deeply processed products on display. In the past, most agricultural products were sold directly, leaving limited room for value addition. Now, through preservation research and development, formula improvement, and deep processing, more value-added links remain local. "Small products contain big industries. Only by deeply cultivating intensive processing can we truly turn agricultural resource advantages into industrial advantages and solidify the foundation of a strong agricultural city," Cai said.

Without going abroad, visitors can sample global goods. In the International Comprehensive Hall, Hall D, the aromas of fruit and cocoa mingled. In front of a Southeast Asian fruit booth, mangoes and pineapples were piled like mountains. Liu Jia, attending the expo for the third time, deftly cut a pineapple while chatting with reporters: "As soon as the expo opened, many old clients who cooperated in previous years came to ask for prices and place orders."

Southeast Asian fresh fruit, Canadian chocolate, and distinctive exhibits from multiple countries along the Belt and Road gathered in the hall. Relying on the benefits of RCEP policy, ASEAN merchants came in groups to select products and place orders. The agricultural exhibition livestream room opened simultaneously, and overseas buyers viewed samples and connected for business through screens, linking online and offline channels. "The expo builds a cross-regional and cross-border agricultural economic and trade matchmaking platform," said Liu Peiyi, head of the Exhibition Planning Section of the Zhumadian Agricultural Foreign Cooperation and Exchange Center. Agricultural products often have regional limitations, and many high-quality agricultural products remain unknown. The expo platform enables precise matchmaking between northern and southern production and sales areas in China while linking overseas markets, promoting local agricultural products going out and bringing in distinctive overseas resources, achieving two-way circulation.

Entering the science and technology exhibition area in Hall B, a strong sense of technology was everywhere. Agile humanoid robots shook hands and interacted with visitors; intelligent quadruped robot dogs performed smoothly; and multiple new plant protection drones were arrayed in neat formations, capable of efficiently carrying out farmland spraying, inspections, and pest and disease monitoring. "This is my first time talking with a robot, and also my first time shaking hands with one!" In the crowd, 86-year-old Wang Zhifa was spirited and smiling. As a promoter and witness of the expo's landing in Zhumadian, he has attended for 28 consecutive years and watched the event iterate and upgrade step by step. "There are changes every year, quality keeps improving, and the scale keeps expanding. As a Zhumadian local, I feel deeply proud," the elderly man said, his eyes shining.

The event not only competed for popularity but placed greater emphasis on technology implementation and project matchmaking. This year's expo brought together research think tanks such as the Planning and Design Research Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, releasing the latest achievements in future food research and development, green and low-carbon processing, and intelligent complete equipment, pushing the expo to transform from a traditional "commodity exhibition and sales stage" into a "science and technology innovation transformation platform." "Science and technology are the core lever for cultivating new quality productive forces in agriculture and are reshaping the entire agricultural product processing chain," Ma Hongzhen, president of the Zhumadian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, told reporters at the smart agriculture exhibition area. Today, intelligent equipment, AI monitoring, and green packaging technologies are being implemented in workshops and fields. Whether it is scientific management in planting or automated production lines and degradable environmentally friendly packaging in processing workshops, technology effectively reduces losses and stabilizes product quality. Ma believes that agricultural technology cannot be locked in laboratories; it must be applied more in fields and brought into workshops. The expo opens up channels for industry-university-research matchmaking, bringing laboratory technologies, equipment enterprises, and production entities together. As a window for technology transformation, it helps agriculture-related enterprises dare to use and know how to use new technologies.

According to reports, in recent years, Zhumadian has deeply cultivated the "grain head to food tail, livestock head to meat tail, and farm head to industrial tail" model. Relying on the China (Zhumadian) International Agricultural Products Processing Industrial Park, it has adhered to "strengthening leading enterprises, supplementing chains, and gathering clusters," focused on "seizing innovation, creating brands, and expanding markets," and accelerated the building of industrial clusters. In the next five years, Zhumadian aims to achieve new results in building a modern industrial system and accelerating the construction of a strong agricultural city.

In the transition from a major agricultural city to a strong agricultural city, and from the "Central Plains Granary" to a national modern agricultural product processing base, the China Agricultural Processing Expo has injected lasting and powerful momentum into this path of transformation. When agricultural product processing meets cutting-edge technology, when agricultural products connect with vast markets, and when China connects with the world, the story of the China Agricultural Processing Expo continues to write new chapters.