Dim Sums: Agricultural Markets in China

As trade tensions with the U.S. flare up, Chinese companies are setting up giant farms in Africa, Asia and Russia according to Chinese news media. The news echoes an earlier wave of so-called "land grabs" that were over-hyped and mostly ineffectual. Earlier this month, a  Beijing Times Caijing article, " Why are Chinese companies flocking overseas to farm? " explained that the phenomenon reflects China's strategic considerations for ensuring food security and its far-reaching intention to reconstruct international trade. The article connects the farming investments to trade frictions between the U.S. and China, the use of agricultural products as a bargaining chip in "geopolitical games," and the "huge risk" of relying on the U.S. and Brazil for 90% of its soybean imports. An edible oils news site proclaimed that "a new wave of 'going global' in the agricultural and food sector has begun," with more and more companies inve...

China's agriculture minister met with African counterparts to jumpstart promises of agricultural aid made at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held in Beijing last week. While 50 African nations attended the Forum where agriculture was a featured item, China's Minister of Agriculture Han Jun met with only 5 agriculture and fisheries ministers. One agreement was signed and one was discussed. "Accelerating agricultural modernization in Africa" was chapter 6 of The Beijing Action Plan (2025-2027) released by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Forum, encompassing about 4 of the Plan's 70 pages. It includes sections on science and technology, poverty reduction and rural development, and food aid.  The document calls for achieving "agricultural modernization" in Africa. China has been pursuing agricultural modernization since the 1950s and still hasn't achieved it (judging from many Chinese documents that still call for pursing agricultural...

China's plan to modernize Africa's agriculture received much praise and fanfare at a China-Africa agricultural cooperation forum held in China's Hainan Island this week.  The "Plan for China Supporting Africa’s Agricultural Modernization" (along with plans for the continent's industrialization and personnel training) was unveiled by Xi Jinping at the August BRICS forum in South Africa . The plan includes technology transfer by Chinese experts, building a China-Africa tropical agriculture R&D center, establishing a China-Africa R&D innovation alliance, training African technicians and managers, and promoting China-Africa trade in agricultural goods.  China implies that its plan is superior to western approaches to aiding Africa. The plan's preamble announces that "China is ready to further explore new pathways of agricultural cooperation with Africa." China bills its plan as "south-south cooperation": one "developing countr...

China hosted African agricultural leaders for a forum this week where Chinese officials pledged to expand and deepen cooperation, investment, and trade with African agriculture over the next 3 years. Photo from China Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. According to China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs , 500 representatives from African countries and international organizations attended the meeting hosted by the Ministry and the Hainan Provincial Government in the provincial capital of Sanya, December 9. Attendees heard speeches from China's Minister and Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Hainan governor, and African leaders. China's ag minister emphasized the "huge potential" for China-Africa cooperation in agriculture in the "new era" proclaimed by Xi Jinping. The focus of cooperation will be on food security, poverty alleviation, agricultural science and technology, agricultural modernization, and giving develo...

At a March 7 press conference two African journalists asked China's Minister of Agriculture what Africa can learn from China about agricultural development. The Minister assured the journalists that China is a good friend to Africa and hopes for even more cooperation in agriculture. His answer focused on China's technical aid to Africa: opening rice-growing demonstration centers in Africa, sending numerous technicians to Africa, and training thousands of African technicians and officials in China. He celebrated China's success in addressing its food security problems and noted that Africa still has a food security problem. China's Ag Minister said he was eager to share China's rural development experience, but he was vague and equivocal on exactly what advice or guidance China could give to African countries. His response boiled down to an admission that China has no transferable formula for agricultural development. China's experience is peculiar to its ow...

China's approach to "precise poverty alleviation" focuses on starting up industry chains to pull poor people out of poverty, both at home and abroad. At first glance, the " International Symposium on Donkey Industry Development " held last month in Shandong's Dong'e County sounds like a joke to those of us unaware of the value of donkeys, but it was quite a serious occasion with millions of dollars at stake.   Online Donkey Exchange kick-off held in December 2016. The online donkey exchange set up in the same city last December --the first online donkey trading platform in China!--also sounds like a satirical article from The Onion , but it also is a serious venture. This "Internet + Donkey" model aims to bring the little fellows into the era of "big data", with an expectation of 300 donkeys traded daily and eventually becoming a center for global donkey trade. "Revitalizing the Chinese donkey industry is our respon...

China's imports of sesame seed from Africa have exploded this year. By September China had already imported 700,000 metric tons of sesame seeds during 2015, easily surpassing last year's record purchases. Nearly all of the imports come from Africa (other suppliers include Myanmar, Bangladesh, and India). Ethiopia, Sudan, and Tanzania have been the leading suppliers for a number of years China's Grain and Oils News reports that the flood of sesame was triggered by big harvests in Ethiopia and India that caused prices to plummet. However, customs statistics show that this year's surge of imports comes from relatively new suppliers Togo, Niger, and Mali. The volume of imports from Ethiopia--the leading supplier for the last 10 years--has been relatively stable. Last year, Nikkei Asian Review attributed a spike in global sesame prices to China's growing demand for imported sesame seed, although it also mentioned a poor harvest in India. This year, prices are f...

China's engagement in agriculture in Africa is depicted to the rest of the world as a magnaninmous "south-south" aid program. For domestic audiences, Africa is a source of food for a Chinese population that has ravaged its own resource base. The dual messages are evident in two articles posted on Chinese websites this week. In one article, " China-Africa Cooperation in Agriculture Mutually Beneficial ," cooperation between Chinese and African governments in agriculture is described as part of a growing collaboration that many Chinese companies view as a profitable investment opportunity. The investment is described as "south-south" cooperation that addresses the lack of infrastructure and low-tech nature of Africa's agriculture, and creates jobs for Africans. The article describes a strategy emphasizing use of fertilizer and pesticides, seed breeding, and pest-prevention in a four-way collaboration between universities in Uganda and Guangzhou, ...

As I arrived in the city of Guangzhou for the first time in 8 years I was taken aback by the number of Africans on the street. Dozens of young African men were going about their business in the area around my hotel. They were clearly not students, diplomats, tourists or 5-star executives—the kind of foreigners one expects to see in China. I was also intrigued by the number of restaurants with Arabic signs around town. I went back to my hotel room and consulted Google to find out what these Africans were doing in Guangzhou. An English translation of an article from Guangzhou’s Southern Metropolitan Daily provided the answers. Over the past decade thousands of African and Middle Eastern merchants have been coming to China—mainly Guangzhou—to buy blue jeans and other budget-priced merchandise to ship back to their home countries, including Nigeria, Mali, Congo, Angola, Yemen, and Lebanon. By some counts there are at least 20,000 and perhaps 100,000 Africans in Guangzhou and the number ar...