Cargill, the U.S.-based agricultural giant, has renewed its commitment to sustainable agriculture in China, the company said in its annual report.

"We are targeting the fast-growing economies of Asia-Pacific with strategic investments, where populations are growing and diets are shifting," the company said.

Cargill expects to expand the production capacity of its corn processing facility in the city of Songyuan in northeast China's Jilin Province to two million tonnes per year by 2020, following a 112-million-U.S. dollar investment in April.

The annual output value of the plant is expected to reach 10 billion yuan (1.44 billion U.S. dollars) and will contribute one billion yuan in taxes, according to local government. The plant is part of a project being jointly built with the local government called the Sino-U.S. Cargill Biotech Industrial Park.

Cargill has also set up a food safety and technology center in Songyuan focusing on testing, research, and training in the area of food safety.

Cargill's other agricultural investment projects in China since the beginning of 2019 include a 48.8-million-U.S. dollar new plant in Chuzhou City of east China's Anhui Province to rev up protein production.

The company also started construction of a 40-million-U.S. dollar flagship facility for producing animal nutrition in east China's Jiangxi Province.

Entering the Chinese market in the 1970s, Cargill now has more than 10,000 employees in the Chinese mainland.

(With input from Xinhua)