May 31, 2004

Brazil Seals Deal To Provide Soy To China
 

Brazil was closer to achieving its goal of feeding millions of Chinese with soya that may be grown on cleared Amazonian rainforest yesterday, after five days of talks on trade and diplomacy between the two nations.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, led a delegation of eight cabinet ministers, six state governors and 450 business leaders to China in a push to foster closer ties in Asia's fastest growing economy.

The range and dimension of the commercial deals demonstrated a degree of economic synergy rarely seen between two developing countries.

Brazil's vast land and mineral resources, and a perennially weak currency, mean that it is emerging as a key supplier of the raw materials China needs to feed its growing urban population and to keep its factories exporting goods.

The enormous expansion in soya cultivation for export is the most visible sign so far of Brazil's success in locking into Chinese markets.

China's plan to move 300 million rural people into the cities by 2020 poses food supply problems, and Brazil intends to fill the gap.

The Brazilian agriculture minister, Roberto Rodrigues, said: "We have 62m hectares (153m acres) of land planted now, but we have another 90m hectares that will be occupied by agriculture. We could supply the food that [the Chinese] do not manage to produce themselves."