OREANDA-NEWS. December 17, 2014. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that Estonian-Chinese relations are at a new starting point, and that the doors are open for Estonian goods in the Chinese market.

Li Keqiang, who is an economist by training, told the daily Eesti Paevaleht that he supports the move of Estonian companies to get its goods into China.

"Estonia’s distinguished and high-quality dairy products and bottled waters might find a market in the Chinese middle- and higher-income consumer base,“ said Li Keqiang, who has held his office since March 2013.

"China will encourage its enterprises to buy Estonia’s distinctive goods and support them in this," he said.

"We hope that Estonian industrial organizations and companies take full advantage of both the bilateral cooperation mechanisms, as well as the different actors in multilateral platforms to better market themselves and buld the market for Estonian good in China, among its brand-name, competitive products."

The Estonian Minister for Foreign Trade and Entrepreneurship, Anne Sulling, said in November that Estonia’s past political relations with the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s leader in exile, had made it difficult for Estonian milk producers to achieve success in the Chinese market.

The Estonian dairy industry has been affected by this year's Russian trade sanctions, imposed in retaliation to the EU sanctions on Russia in light of the Ukraine crisis. It has been investigating new markets, including China.