China’s foreign farming policy: can land provide security?

BICCS Asia Paper Vol. 3 (9) | 24 November 2008

Duncan FREEMAN, Jonathan HOLSLAG, Steffi WEIL

Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies

PDF: chinas-foreign-farming-policy

Main policy recommendations:

The Chinese government is under growing pressure to secure supply of foreign agriculture products. Therefore, Beijing will opt for a wide array of policies. One the one hand it will continue to resort to the global market and further open its borders for imports. On the other hand, it will continue to experiment with active aid and investment policies abroad. China’s increasing dependence on foreign farming requires the European Union to:

• examine the opportunities of China’s demand for agricultural goods;
• prepare an assertive export promotion policy;
• provide support for SME’s in exporting value-added products to China;
• back European food and agriculture companies in their operations abroad;
• join forces for sustainable agricultural development in Africa and Asia;
• raise awareness in China that agriculture systems in Africa are fragile and should not be exposed to aid policies without a careful social and environmental impact assessment.

Duncan Freeman, Jonathan Holslag and Steffi Weil are research fellows at BICCS, specialized respectively in China’s outward investment and trade policies, China’s foreign policy, and Chinese state-owned enterprises.