China should promote more food and agricultural exports to France in order to address the agricultural trade imbalance between the two countries, China's ambassador to France said.

Kong Quan said the value of agricultural trade between China and France reached about $3 billion last year, while the value of Chinese agricultural exports to France stood at only $500 million.

"I hope that Chinese enterprises can increase their exports to France, as many products such as garlic and processed fruits have very good prospects in Europe," he said.

Kong made the comments while attending the Global Food Marketplace, one of the world's largest food exhibitions, in Paris. The five-day exhibition, which opened on Sunday, attracted more than 6,000 enterprises from over 100 countries this year.

The number of Chinese food enterprises attending the event has increased dramatically over the past several years, which reflects the rise of China's food industry in the global markets. More than 500 Chinese food enterprises attended the exhibition this year while there were only five Chinese enterprises in 2000.

However, industry analysts said that the key challenge for China as it seeks to increase its agricultural and food exports is to boost global trust of Chinese products. Such trust still remains low as scandals in China's food industry have damaged the sector's image and credibility.