Why and how is China reordering the food regime? the Brazil-China soy-meat complex and COFCO´s global strategy in the Southern Cone

Abstract

Chinese agricultural investments in the Southern Cone and theBrazil-China soy-meat complex are playing a pivotal role in theinternational reordering of the contemporary food regime.China’s neo-mercantilist strategy, as exemplified by COFCO,carries elements of both continuity and rupture with this process.With an assertive yetflexible strategy, COFCO has adapted toChina’s internal requirements, the specificities of host countries,the geopolitical tensions with the US, and global competitors’corporate power. COFCO’s strategy reflects the successful Chineseintegration into the capitalist world system and the pursuit of aself-reliant food security policy by setting its own terms for globalagribusiness engagement.