Chinese Agricultural Investment in Africa: Motives, Actors and Modalities

The document analyzes China's 'Agricultural Going Out' strategy in Africa, noting that while investment is relatively small—amounting to $406 million by 2011—it is strategically focused on cash crops and diplomatic alliance-building. It distinguishes between small-scale private ventures serving local markets and larger state-led projects targeting cash crops for international or Chinese markets. The paper details the shift from production-centric models toward downstream logistics and the prevalence of farm/plantation and contract farming models.

• Chinese agricultural foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa is relatively small compared to other regions and other sectors in Africa; by the end of 2011, it totaled approximately $400 million, representing 12% of China's total overseas agricultural FDI and 2.5% of its total investment in Africa.
• China's agricultural investment in Africa is primarily resource-oriented and focused on cash crops rather than staple food crops, as China maintains a strict food self-sufficiency policy for grains to ensure national sovereignty and security.
• There is a clear divide in the types of actors and projects: approximately 80% of projects are held by private companies and are typically small-scale food crop ventures serving local markets, whereas larger projects (over 1,000 hectares or $1 million investment) are predominantly led by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and focus on cash crops.
• Financing for these ventures is largely dependent on self-owned capital and loans from policy-oriented national banks, specifically the Export-Import Bank of China (EXIM Bank) and the China Development Bank (CDB), which tend to favor SOEs or projects aligned with national interests.
• While the farm/plantation model is the most common, contract farming has proven effective for specific sectors, such as cotton; for example, the China Africa Cotton Company (CACC) works with over 200,000 contracted farmers across seven African countries.
• The market for Chinese-produced food crops in Africa is primarily local, often serving the growing Chinese expatriate community and construction firms, while cash crops are sold to local, international, or Chinese markets.

APA

Jiang, L. (2015). Chinese Agricultural Investment in Africa: Motives, Actors and Modalities. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Occasional-Paper-223.pdf

Chicago

Jiang, Lu. Chinese Agricultural Investment in Africa: Motives, Actors and Modalities. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2015. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Occasional-Paper-223.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Jiang |first1=Lu |title=Chinese Agricultural Investment in Africa: Motives, Actors and Modalities |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=October 2015 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Occasional-Paper-223.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{jiang2015chinese, author = {Jiang, Lu}, title = {{Chinese Agricultural Investment in Africa: Motives, Actors and Modalities}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2015}, month = oct, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Occasional-Paper-223.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }