China sent its agriculture minister to the inauguration of Uruguay's President Yamandú Orsi in Montevideo. Why would China send its agriculture minister--in office for less than a year--to the inauguration of an important Latin American ally?
According to State media, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Han Jun was appointed as Xi Jinping's special envoy to the March 1 inauguration. Minister Han met with President Orsi at the presidential palace to convey greetings and best wishes from China's leader.
(The Uruguay trip explains why Minister Han was absent from a prominent meeting to discuss China's seed industry held the same day as the inauguration.)
President Trump chose Alabama Senator Katie Britt to attend the inauguration. Several South American countries sent their presidents, as did Armenia. Germany sent its low-profile president Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
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China has been pushing for a trade deal with Uruguay since 2021 and made a concerted effort to draw Uruguay into its "Belt and Road" sphere in 2023. Lula apparently did not attend the inauguration, but Da Silva just invited Uruguay's new president to attend the China-dominated BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro coming up in July.
Maybe Minister Han was the only official available for the trip, or maybe he was the only one Xi thought he could trust. But the importance of agriculture in Uruguay seems to be a logical explanation for choosing Minister Han to represent China at the inauguration.
Uruguay has become a significant exporter of food to China. In 2024 China's imported $2 billion worth of farm products from Uruguay, but nearly all of it was composed of beef and soybeans. China's $892 million of meat imports was composed mainly of beef, plus $14 million of lamb. Imports of soybeans were over $1 billion. Uruguay is the 4th-ranked supplier of China's beef and soybean imports and supplies roughly 9%-14% of China's imported beef and just 2% of China's imported soybeans.
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| Harmonized system codes 02-24. From China Customs Administration web site. |
However, China's agricultural imports from Uruguay are not exactly booming. China's imports of Uruguayan beef were on a steep growth path until 2022 when their value peaked at $1.9 billion. China's beef purchases from Uruguay plummeted to $870 million in 2024. A Uruguayan exporter was one of 7 beef companies suspended by China Customs yesterday.
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| China Customs Administration data. |
China's imports of soybeans from Uruguay have bounced between $500,000 and $1 billion in most years since 2015, peaking at $1.27 billion in 2022. China reported no soybean imports from Uruguay in 2023, apparently due to drought in the South American country. There is a history of quality issues including excessive moisture and high temperature in soybean shipments from Uruguay to China, addressed by a 2017 bilateral agreement. But last fall there were reports that private terminals were preventing external inspectors from checking vessels.
In relations with "Belt and Road" countries China's agriculture ministry is mainly involved in offering technical assistance and coordinating outbound Chinese agribusiness investment. It would appear China has little to offer Uruguay in assistance to beef or soybean growers in Uruguay since China does poorly in growing both of these commodities and is highly dependent on imports of both beef and soybeans.
During a July 2024 China visit by Uruguay's Minister of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fisheries of Uruguay the two sides pledged to work on beef production, hold a meeting of the China–Uruguay Joint Committee on Agriculture in China, and set up Chinese demonstration farms focused on green, digital and intelligent agriculture in Uruguay.
The banned Uruguayan beef exporter was dinged for having excessive levels of a compound used to control ticks in cattle. Technical problems with imports are chiefly handled by China's customs authority. A study by Chinese scientists found that soybeans with Uruguayan genetics had lower protein content than Chinese soybeans, but the study may have little relevance since the experiment grew both types of soybeans in Chinese fields and did not use commercial seed. Nor did the study take into account that Chinese soybeans are actually not in high demand.
Maybe China will offer to build a rice demonstration farm since rice is a relatively minor crop in Uruguay. Another possibility is that Han will negotiate deals for Chinese beef companies to invest in Uruguay to ship beef to China or Chinese grain-trading companies to buy a shipping terminal in Uruguay to facilitate shipping and inspection of soybeans to China.
1 comment:
In my database of diplomatic visits, I see 10 agriculture minister trips to inaugurations abroad, out of a total of 133 over the Xi and Hu governments. 7/10 were to Latin America, the single European one was to grain superpower Ukraine in 2010.
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