China-Africa agricultural cooperation is getting closer

China is the second largest destination country for African agricultural products exports. In recent years, the average annual growth rate of African agricultural products exports to China has reached 11.4%. The cooperation between the two sides in agriculture has become increasingly close, and the scale of trade has steadily increased, showing strong resilience.

Through the "green channel", more high-quality agricultural products from Africa will enter China. At the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in November 2021, China announced the establishment of a "green channel" for the export of African agricultural products to China. In July 2022, Hunan will open the first international freight route to Africa, the "Changsha-Addis Ababa" freight route. Fresh seasonal African fruits such as grapes and prunes from Africa will arrive in Changsha after a "long journey". In August 2022, Kenyan fresh avocados will officially enter the Chinese market.

China-Africa agricultural technology cooperation benefits people's livelihood. The Juncao technology from China "replaces wood with grass", which fundamentally solves the "contradiction of the fungus forest" that a large number of trees need to be cut down for edible fungi. It is understood that more than 35,000 farmers in Rwanda have received Juncao technology training, and more than 3,800 households and more than 50 companies and cooperatives are engaged in related businesses. At present, China's Juncao technology has been promoted to 106 countries and regions around the world, helping many farmers get rid of poverty and become rich. China's Juncao technology helps African countries achieve their sustainable development goals.

Another China-Africa agricultural technology cooperation project worth mentioning is the China-Africa Joint Research Center in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. This is an important platform for scientific and technological cooperation and personnel training between China and Kenya and even the entire African continent in the fields of biodiversity protection, ecological environment monitoring, microbes and modern agricultural applications. So far, nearly 300 African students have studied in China through the China-Africa Joint Research Center's scholarship program. The center has also trained more than 1,000 managers and professional technicians for 14 African countries.