Demand Potential for Agricultural Trade between China and Countries along the "Belt and Road"

International agricultural markets are an important part of the global food resource chain. Tapping into the potential of agricultural trade between China and countries along the "Belt and Road" (B&R) is conducive to safeguarding China's and the world's food security, but there is less literature on the potential of bilateral trade demand. This paper ranks the B&R countries according to the scale of imports and exports, and calculates the elasticity of demand for imports, the elasticity of substitution for exports, and, finally, the potential of elasticity of demand for trade between China and the major B&R countries. The results show that China's agricultural export potential to major B&R countries is ranked as follows: Indonesia, Thailand, Russia, Poland, Turkey, Vietnam, Malaysia, Ukraine, India, and Singapore. The major B&R countries are also ranked in terms of their export potential to China: Vietnam, India, Ukraine, Russia, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Poland, Singapore, and Turkey. The findings of this paper provide a decision-making basis for promoting agricultural trade between China and B&R countries.