South Africa looks to China for agriculture deals

Cape Town: South Africa will continue talks with China on Tuesday to find a market for surplus maize and attract investment into processing plants, the agriculture minister said on Monday.

South Africa, the continent's largest producer of maize, turned out a surplus of about four million tonnes for the 2009-10 season and has struggled to sell that surplus due to limited markets and poor prices.

"We've had our first round of negotiations with the minister of agriculture as well as the minister of imports in China," Tina Joemat-Pettersson, minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, told reporters ahead of her departure for China.

She said China did not import maize as a necessity but was looking for value-added products including feed for cattle and poultry.

"So the discussions we are having would be to use some of the maize for value-addition, which would then mean that we set up systems for agro-processing for the surplus maize that we do have," she said.

She also added that China was likely to invest in agro-processing plants as it already did in fishing.

President's visit

South African President Jacob Zuma visited China last month and urged the Asian giant's government to invest more money in infrastructure and manufacturing.

"We want to increase our trade balance with China, so it will include primary food and processed food, so food along the entire value chain will be exported ... it's going to be a huge trade and export of goods to China," she said.

Joemat-Petterson said South Africa was also targeting future exports in soya and canned peaches to China's 1.3 billion population as it sought to improve a trade balance heavily skewed in favour of China.