New Zealand Agriculture Minister David Carter will lead a delegation of New Zealand agricultural technology companies to China this week.

The trade mission will visit Beijing, Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Heilongjiang province in northern China. These are leading dairy producing provinces with links to New Zealand through the Yili and Mengniu dairy companies and the Heilongjiang Dairy Project.

While in Beijing, Carter will hold a range of meetings with Chinese ministers and business leaders, and sign a dairy cooperation agreement with the Chinese government. He will also visit New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra's operations outside of Beijing.

"China is our second-largest trading partner, with total trade exceeding 10 billion NZ dollars (700 million U.S. dollars) in 2009, and export growth has continued to soar despite the global downturn," Carter said in a media statement on Monday.

"The governments of both our countries are working closely together in the areas of agriculture and food safety. The trade mission will build on this growing cooperation and bring to China expertise and innovation from some of New Zealand's leading agritech companies," he added.

A total of 12 companies are taking part in the trade mission, including Fonterra, PGG Wrightson, AgResearch, AsureQuality and Massey and Lincoln Universities.