Topeka ? State and Taiwanese officials signed an agreement Friday under which the Asian nation announced its plans to import $266 million worth of hard red winter wheat in a two-year period, the bulk of it from Kansas farmers.

The signing was part of a larger trade mission by Taiwanese officials and business leaders to the United States, expected to lead to agreements covering $2.7 billion in agricultural products.

Kansas and Taiwan established a sister-state relationship in 1989, and its capital, Taipei, has an economic and cultural office in Kansas City, Mo. Taiwan is the ninth-largest export market for Kansas products, according to the state Department of Commerce.

But the relationship between American agriculture and Taiwan is older, with wheat producers maintaining an office in Taipei for four decades.

“Trade is beneficial to the people on both sides,” said Jo-Chin Wang, director-general of the Taipei office in Kansas City.