After importing tens of thousands of chicks from the United States last month, Wang Lianzeng, a National People's Congress deputy from Hebei province, called for enhanced international cooperation in breeding egg-laying hens in a proposal delivered during the top legislature's recently concluded annual meeting in Beijing.

"I think it's necessary for enterprises of the two countries to cooperate, which is an important part of people-to-people interactions," Wang said last week, adding that he had engaged in multiple instances of win-win cooperation with an American company for almost two decades.

Wang is the chairman of Huayu Agricultural Science and Technology Co, a 42-year-old private company headquartered in Handan, Hebei, that has grown into a leading chick breeder in China.

Wang said the company first imported 5,000 breeding hens from US company Hy-Line International in 2006.

Since then, cooperation has continued and expanded, with the average number of imported chicks rising to 100,000 a year, along with the increased exchange of knowledge and skills, Wang said.

In 2016, the companies established a joint venture in China to supply highly productive egg-laying hens to Chinese markets.

"We have cooperated in raising high-quality breeding chickens, and introduced advanced management experience, as well as cutting-edge technology and equipment, which have boosted the leapfrog development of China's poultry industry," Wang said.

Huayu and Hy-Line have established the world's largest layer hatchery in Handan, with a total capacity of 100 million commercial layers a year.

"Our American partners also learned from us in multiple aspects, such as how Chinese agricultural markets operate and what kinds of chickens and eggs Chinese customers like," Wang said, adding that the cooperation in the past two decades has yielded productive results for both sides.

Huayu imported 28,000 chicks from Hy-Line in February. They will produce 140 million commercial egg-laying hens after three generations of breeding, which are expected to supply 50 billion eggs for Chinese consumers.

In his NPC proposal, Wang suggested that China should speed up the independent breeding of livestock and poultry to improve their acceptance and competitiveness in markets.

"While increasing independent research and development efforts, domestic companies should also introduce foreign advanced experience, which can promote the improvement of the domestic breeding level," Wang said, adding that the proposal was a good fit with the country's aims of ensuring national food security and further promoting sustainable agricultural development.