Chinese state-owned and private companies have been looking at the overseas food supply chain to ensure the country’s food security. “The way China sources its food is of global concern,” Japanese publication Nikkei Asia said in a report.
“China’s food security policy has to do with […] voracious purchases of inputs and food through world markets,” Ignacio Bartesaghi, director of the International Business Institute at the Catholic University of Uruguay.. “China does not have the capacity to produce the food it consumes.”
“China hoards more than half of the world’s grain stock and drives up prices,” the Uruguayan agribusiness website Blasina and Associates says online. “Its production of wheat and other inputs, as well as the amount of land used for agriculture, stagnated in 2015.”
China’s soybean imports soared from 2.3 billion in 2000, to 38 billion in 2018. It is also the world’s largest consumer of fish, CSIS pointed out. The Chinese fishing fleet is engaged in illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in distant waters, contributing to the severe depletion of fish stocks worldwide, U.S. digital news site ShareAmerica reported.
It would also be the only country that could withstand a global crisis, reported Colombian newspaper La República. China is not only the main destination for certain agri-food products, it is also already a major player in international logistics supply chains in this sector, according to Spanish think tank Real Instituto Elcano.