Feature: Sino-LatAm agricultural cooperation speeds up

Route 163 in the State of Mato Gross, west Brazil, becomes one of the busiest roads in the South American country during February and March every year, as it links soybeans, the country's most important agricultural export commodity, to their biggest market - China.

Numerous big trucks, fully loaded with soybeans, run thousands of kilometers from Route 163 to the ports along the Atlantic Ocean. The soybeans will be shipped to China, 20,000 kilometers away, and then processed into tofu, soy milk and soybean oil, the most popular food products in the Asian country.

On both side of Route 163, soybean farms spread as far as 700 kilometers. As Brazil's largest soybean-producing area, this region exports 90 percent of its soybeans to China.

Mr. Wang, an engineer from China working on a local grid project, marveled at the magic links between China and the local people.

Local farmers don't know much about China, but they know that China is their biggest buyer and provides the most profits, said Wang, adding "When they knew that I'm from China, they became friendlier to me."

These links between China and Brazil mirror the relations between two peoples, which have been nurtured and consolidated by the strong growth of the agricultural trades between the two nations. During the last decade, the Sino-Brazil agricultural trade increased six times.

"Brazil is the second largest soybean producer in the world. China alone consumes 70 percent of its total export," said Zhang Peilin, general manager of Chinatex Grains and Oils Imp. & Exp. Co. , Ltd. in Brazil, "half of China's imported soybeans come from Brazil."

According to Brazil's Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, in 2014, soybeans remained the biggest export agricultural products, with 45.69 million tons in volume and 23.27 billion U.S. dollars in value. Of the total, 33.17 million tons were shipped to China and the number is expected to reach 46 million in 2015.

China surpassed the European Union (EU) in 2013 as the biggest market for Brazil's agricultural exports.

Sino-Brazil trade is a part of Sino-Latin America (Sino-LatAm) agricultural cooperation, as China has also made huge progress in agricultural collaborations with other countries like Argentina, Chile, and Peru in the past decade.

The Sino-LatAm agricultural trade increased from 5.28 billion U. S. dollars in 2003 to 35.33 billion U.S. dollars in 2013, with an annual growth of 21 percent. China's import from this region rocketed from 5 billion U.S. dollars to 32.95 billion U.S. dollars during the same period.

Latin America has become an important source of agricultural products for China, as it makes up 19 percent of China's total agricultural imports.

Up to now, China has signed memorandum on agriculture cooperation with 16 Latin American countries, and formed joint committees or working teams with 12 of them; China also proposed a new cooperation frame work "1+3+6" with Latin American and Caribbean countries last July, and agriculture is one of the six important areas for both sides to work on.

At the first China-CELAC forum ministerial meeting held in Beijing in January, 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the fund of 50 million U.S. dollars for Sino-LatAm agricultural cooperation had begun to finance the joint projects.

Based on solid trading relationships, the agricultural cooperation between China and Latin America has stepped into a new phase with more diversity.

"In addition to the trading, Chinatex has begun to provide financial services to Brazilian farmers. And we are also considering to expand our business to supply fertilizers, pesticides and machinery," said Zhang Peilin.

China's biggest company in agriculture, COFCO, has established a strategic cooperation relationship with Nieddera, a world famous agricultural company from Holland, and entered the Latin American market with the latter's logistic and warehouses networks in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, by buying a 51 percent-stake in Nieddera.

In recent years, China also launched joint projects with Latin American partners in agricultural technology and biological field, including the joint agricultural lab with Brazil, the demonstration farm with Chile, the Moringa oleifera research center with Cuba, the food science and technology research center with Argentina and agriculture research center with Peru.

"China should further broaden its investment in Latin America," said Zhang, "to take part in the construction of warehouse and logistics infrastructures and to invest in the big agricultural projects, in addition to the trading business." Enditem