Chongqing Grain Group

Chongqing Grain Group Co Ltd, one of China's largest State-owned grain companies, is in talks with Molino Canuelas SA, a major agribusiness group in Argentina, about joint investments totaling $10 million in a soybean farm and dairy farms in the South American country.

With demand for food rising with China's growing population and economy, domestic companies are looking to boost investments in resource-rich foreign countries such as Brazil and Indonesia to fill the food supply gap at home.

Officials from Chongqing in southwest China plan to invest US$6 billion this year to develop agriculture in Brazil, Argentina, Canada and other countries.

The Chinese agricultural industry is speeding up the pace of its engagement with international agricultural markets as more policies aimed at encouraging companies to pursue "Going Out" policies are released.

The project will be the biggest overseas investment made by a Chinese agricultural enterprise and China's largest overseas production base for cooking oil.

Changes to land laws are under discussion in Brazil, this time based on reciprocity. One result is that Chinese investors would be banned from buying any land in Brazil, as China does not permit private ownership of land.

The Chinese article on the deal emphasized that Chongqing citizens would get the soy oil at a very cheap price ("价格将更便宜").

While Brazil touts its efforts to slow destruction of the Amazon, another biodiverse region of the country is being cleared for large-scale farming. But unlike the heralded rainforest it borders, the loss of the cerrado and its rich tropical savanna so far has failed to attract much notice.

Chinese group Chongqing Grain is due to launch an agri-industrial project expected to cost 4 billion reals (US$2.4 billion) in the state of Bahia, Brazil, the state’s secretary for Agriculture said.

Company approaching 10 other state-owned companies from Chongqing Municipality to fund the construction of massive soybean production facility in the Brazilian state of Bahia

Review of options for companies like Chongqing Cereals Group

La compagnie chinoise Chongqing Grain Group vient d’annoncer son intention d’acheter 100 000 hectares de terres arables dans l’Etat de Bahia, dans le nord-est du Brésil, afin d’y cultiver du soja pour le marché chinois.