Brazil seeks Chinese investment in infrastructure

According to a report released on Monday, Brazil’s Agriculture Minister, Carlos Favaro, proposed fresh investment opportunities to China’s top grains trader, COFCO, during a meeting in Beijing last week.

The minister urged COFCO’s board to consider investing in Brazilian railways and waterways, financing the restoration of farmland, and exploring additional export terminal capacity. COFCO has already invested in Brazil’s soybean port, Santos, and has been instrumental in opening up China’s corn market to Brazilian supplies.

While Brazil is a new supplier of corn to China, COFCO was behind the purchase of all 1.5 million tonnes of corn shipped to China so far. During the meeting, China’s customs authority approved four new Brazilian meat plants for export to China, with more expected in the coming weeks.

The two nations plan to sign an agreement to allow for electronic certification of meat export facilities to speed up approvals. Favaro also plans to visit state-owned ChemChina’s Syngenta laboratories on Tuesday to discuss gene editing.