February 3, 2012

China to build grain processing complexes overseas 

China's foreign agricultural plans should be supported by building more grain processing infrastructures as part of the country's global expansion goal in the farming sector, a senior agricultural policy official said Thursday (Feb 2).

"Buying or leasing land in foreign countries to produce agricultural products is only one of the ways of China can expand overseas," Chen Xiwen, general director of the Office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group.

"We can also go to some grain - exporting countries to set up processing facilities, help expand local employment and provide technical and economic assistance."

China has been stepping up investment projects overseas to secure long-term food supplies, and some of its ventures in South America and Africa have been criticised for being a form of land grab.