China's robust development and wider opening up have been creating massive opportunities for foreign businesses, a senior executive of a US-based global animal health company has said.

China has been consistently ranked as the world's largest producer of animal feed. (Photo provided to China Daily)

"It would probably be our biggest opportunity because we still have a lot of growth there," Brian McCawley, senior vice president of sales at Alltech, told Xinhua in a recent interview, referring to the company's business ambition on the Chinese market.

The company, headquartered in Nicholasville, the southeastern US state of Kentucky, develops agricultural products for use in both livestock and crop farming, as well as products for the food industry.

Setting up a Chinese subsidiary in 1994, it was among the earliest foreign enterprises to establish their presence in China, witnessing the market's rapid growing.

"When we think back to 1994, China was very different than it is today," said McCawley, adding the feed market was "really small" at that time.

China has been consistently ranked as the world's largest producer of animal feed, according to consecutive annual surveys by the company.

The 2019 Alltech Global Feed Survey showed China maintained the status as the top feed-producing country in the world with 187.89 million metric tons.

"It's been a tremendous transformation for China, and China should be very proud of what they've done with their agricultural industry," said McCawley, who has years of experience of working and living in China.

"The whole industry is transformed because of the amount of people we have in China who are now able to afford a basic protein every day," he said.

The executive believes that mutual benefits from the market will endure.

"When you look at feed indexes around the world, a big part of it is population," said McCawley, noting China's fast-growing middle-income class, which translates to improving ability to consume protein daily, has offered a huge boost to the company's business confidence in the market.

According to latest statistics, China has a population of nearly 1.4 billion people and a middle-income population of over 400 million, making it a strategic market that multinationals never want to miss out on.

A sound relationship at the national-level is essential to cross-border business cooperation, he noted.

"That's in everybody's best interest going forward," said McCawley.

The company had sponsored the Fifth China-US Governors Forum held in late May in Kentucky, where hundreds of governors, mayors and businesspeople from both countries gathered to discuss the future of China-US relations and the opportunities for further cooperation.

"It's critical to our business that we have a strong presence in China, working closely with the country's agri-food sector," said the company, adding that collaboration with China "will impact the entire global food system."