ABSTRACT
In 2014, during a visit to Havana after travelling to Brazil for the Sixth BRICS summit, Chinese president Xi Jinping visited Havana and gave Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro seeds of the moringa plant as a new symbol of bilateral friendship. Not long before the meeting, the two countries had signed a cooperation agreement on the research and cultivation of moringa, named as the Plant of the Year 2008 by the National Institute of Health in the U.S. for its high nutritional value. Chinese scientists consider the plant a promising source of proteins, vitamins, and minerals nutrition for both farm animals and humans. In order to advance cooperation in moringa, the Cuban and Chinese governments set up two complementary research centres – the Moringa Science & Technology Cooperation Center at the Tropical Crop Research Institute of Yunnan in China and the Institute of Pasture and Forage of the Ministry of Agriculture of Cuba – to lead and implement collaborative projects (CMoA, 2014). The moringa project is a far cry from the usual imaginary of China-LAC
agricultural trade and investment, which has focused heavily on soybeans. Hence it hints not only at an intensification of China’s role in the agricultural sector in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), but also a gradual diversification of these ties. This chapter asks why agricultural cooperation and food trade relations between China and LAC have evolved since the turn of the millennium, and analyses the implications of this trend for LAC. As LAC becomes an increasingly important component of China’s globalized food strategy, the dual processes of intensification and diversification pose new social and environmental challenges within LAC. China’s agricultural ‘Go Out’ strategy, as manifested in expanding invest-
ments in LAC, is in line with the government’s changing policy mentality on national food security caused by the Chinese population’s growing demand and shifting consumption patterns accompanying urbanization and the expansion of the middle classes. Consequently, the Chinese government has played a proactive role in opening up new channels and establishing mechanisms to facilitate and diversify investments. Indeed, in May 2015,
during a four-country tour of Latin America (Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Chile), Chinese premier Li Keqiang announced China’s plan to invest tens of billions in the region’s agriculture, among other sectors (Reuters Beijing, 2015). At the same time, Chinese companies would also invest in LAC infrastructure to ensure the delivery of export-bound grains and other agricultural products to China. Against this backdrop, LAC’s importance as a producer and net exporter of
agricultural commodities – the region’s agricultural heterogeneity notwithstanding – has made it an increasingly vital frontier for China’s agricultural ‘Go Out’ policy. Although LAC itself faces growing contradictions due to poor distribution channels, rich yet poorly utilized natural endowments, and increasing environmental and climate change challenges, its agricultural production is expected to further expand in coming years, making the region essential to fulfil China’s goal of improving supply of grains and other agricultural products. For LAC, these investments look promising insofar as they can continue to
fuel trade, generate prosperity and improve the region’s sorely lacking infrastructure. However, two key challenges lie ahead. First, this model of engagement reinforces pre-existing patterns of investment in export-oriented agricultural production and its associated social grievances and environmental pressures. To mitigate social and environmental costs, LAC stakeholders must better leverage their role in China’s food security and overseas investment. Second, owing to the limited impact of the proposed infrastructure – aimed at ensuring transport of commodities from inland regions to seaports – on regional integration, LAC stakeholders must negotiate deals with China with regional priorities in mind, rather than individual bilateral initiatives. However, these responses must take into account not only the heterogeneity of the region itself, but also the widely varying forms of China’s involvement in LAC agriculture. The chapter is structured as follows. The first part explains Chinese inves-
tors growing interest in LAC agriculture, as well as the growing importance of LAC to China’s food security policy. The second part shows the changing patterns of Chinese investments in LAC agriculture over time, and the kinds of reaction on the part of LAC stakeholders. The last part discusses the key implications that the dual movement of intensification and diversification of China-LAC agricultural ties has for the region.
