World Food Policy Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 14

Africa’s Structural Transformation Challenge and the Role of Agriculture

sub-sectors responding to various market
demands, whether they are Chinese (in
particular for cotton, groundnut, cassava,
wine), international (rubber), or local/
regional in Africa (sugar, horticulture,
rice, poultry, pork, fisheries). In the two
cases mentioned here above, both local
economic development and the financing
of local public goods are fully supported
by the Chinese enterprises. Local
employment is significant and Chinese
foremen or managers have been replaced
with local ones.16

These two main cooperation
models are finally accompanied by a
wave of smaller, private, entrepreneurial
investments, particularly in poultry and
pork production, the stock taking of
which is obviously more difficult. These
entrepreneurs also employ local labor,
but the quantification of these dynamics
and their impact on employment is still
rather unknown.

Chinese engagement in agriculture in Africa is thus not as clear
cut as often projected. Not only does it
remain rather small, it varies significantly
according to actors, sectors, and activities.
This is all the more true as China seems
still unsure which cooperation model
to engage in, leading the latter to vary
rapidly. Indeed, firstly, although Chinese
companies establish themselves to stay,
several enterprises, judging risks and/
or losses to be significant, have lately
decided to relocate their activities toward
other countries, in Africa or beyond. It is

the case of South Africa, where several
Chinese companies recently settled
into primary agricultural production
(fishery, wine, cereal, fruits projects).
Secondly, Chinese companies have
adopted strategies allowing them to
control production, without engaging in
the riskier land-based investments. As
such, a large part of Zimbabwe’s cotton
and tobacco production is produced
under contract farming agreements with
Chinese companies, linking smallholders
and Chinese companies (Mukwereza
2013). Another strategy is centered
on the acquisition of equity shares
in stable companies and investment
endeavors, as seen in some South African
cooperatives and enterprises. This new
approach allows Chinese companies to
develop sector engagement and primary
production control through the input and
commercialization channels.

IV - The evolving role of China in
the rural and food policy debate:
from outsider to contributor?

T

his review and tentative stocktaking exercise of Chinese
interventions in the rural sector
provide a mixed picture.

First, agriculture represents only
a small part of Chinese cooperation: it
concerns a small amount of funds (even
if regional breakdowns are not available)
spread in many diversified projects, whose
leverage power is necessarily limited.

16

In Togo, sugar cane company SINTO employs 280 people on a full-time basis, but during harvest this
can increase to 1,200. In Cameroon, HEVECAM (whose capital is owned by SINOCHEM) employs
about 6,000 workers. SUDCAM, also owned by SINOCHEM, producing natural rubber presently on
4,000 ha but will expand to 32,000 ha by 2025, 96% of the employees are Cameroonian.

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