Senior Brazilian and Chinese agriculture officials are to meet in Brasília this week to discuss ways to expand Brazil’s exports to Asia’s largest economy, where demand for agricultural products is booming.
Brazilian government officials said that the meetings would focus on Brazilian exports of agricultural products, such as soybeans and beef, and “how to address the gap left by US tariffs”.
Other topics to cover are expanding Brazil’s harvest and accrediting Brazilian slaughterhouses for export to China, following Beijing’s recent rejection of 28 local plants because of technical and sanitary issues.
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Brazil’s Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro and a Chinese delegation led by Zhang Zhili, the vice-minister of agriculture and rural affairs, are to take part in the meetings, scheduled for Thursday and Friday.
They will take place against the backdrop of unprecedented trade tension between China and the US. On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump vowed to protect American soybean farmers – who often compete with Brazilian counterparts for market share in China – from his trade war with Beijing.
“Our farmers are GREAT, but because of their GREATNESS, they are always put on the Front Line with our adversaries, such as China, whenever there is a Trade negotiation or, in this case, a Trade War,” Trump posted on his Truth Social account.
Many soybean and corn farmers in Republican-leaning American states like Iowa and Minnesota have warned the White House that the increased cost of their exports due to tariffs could drive them out of business.
On Friday, China hiked its levies on imports of all US goods to 125 per cent, while dismissing the US tariff strategy as “a joke”.
The Chinese delegation to Brazil was already poised for meetings related to the Brics working groups – Brazil will host this year’s Brics summit in July in Rio de Janeiro – but the timing of the visit, and the chance to address the US trade war, was described as “a happy coincidence”, a Brazilian official said.
Brazil has emerged as a beneficiary from existing Chinese tariffs on US farm imports, which have pushed Beijing to seek new agricultural suppliers. As US exports to China shrink, Brazil is filling the gap, while Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva deals with domestic pressure to manage growing food exports without increasing inflation.
In addition to increasing grain and meat production, the talks will cover China’s new 10-year agricultural development plan.
Aimed at ensuring food security by 2035, the scheme calls for boosting technological innovation and productivity in agriculture, expanding self-sufficiency in food production, and increasing domestic grain and meat output.
These objectives could affect long-term China-Brazil trade flows, so Brazilian officials hope to develop supplements to the plan.
Brazil “wants to understand how to align with the plan by adding value to its own exported grains” and seeks ways to process soybeans and corn domestically before shipping them in containers, a Brazilian official said.
Brazilian agriculture officials have proposed increasing expertise exchange in the sector, including joint research with China in areas like artificial intelligence, biotechnology and digital crop management.
Larissa Wachholz, a former adviser on Chinese relations to Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture and a researcher at the Brazilian Center for International Relations, said the meeting offered an opportunity for Brazil to underscore its reliability as a supplier.
“With China and the US clashing over tariffs, Brazil needs to reaffirm its role as a stable partner,” she said. “This meeting is a chance to build trust and make clear that any future agreement between the US and China should not come at Brazil’s expense.”
While some officials see immediate gains from Washington’s trade restrictions on Beijing, Wachholz warned that Brazil must also prepare for scenarios where the two superpowers reconcile – possibly at the cost of Brazilian exporters.
“Agriculture could easily become a bargaining chip,” she said. “Soybeans and meat are sectors where Brazil and the US overlap heavily in exports to China. If Beijing is pushed to buy more from the US, Brazil stands to lose.”
Wachholz also noted that the recent rejection of several Brazilian slaughterhouses was part of a broader debate within China. Domestic producers, she said, were lobbying Beijing to preserve local competitiveness and limit overreliance on imports.
Even so, Wachholz said the timing of this and other coming high-level meetings – including Lula’s visit to China in May to take part in the China-CELAC Forum and the Brics summit in July – create momentum for positive outcomes.
“When leaders meet, they usually want to show progress and have something to deliver,” she said. “Brazil has every reason to push for more market access and long-term cooperation.”
But seizing that opportunity will not be easy. Brazil’s storage infrastructure remains a bottleneck, with a deficit of around 120 million tonnes in grain capacity.
Wachholz said that while the government had limited finances to steer investment, Chinese capital could help fill the gap.
“These are long-term, expensive projects,” she said. “China has patient capital and strategic interest. Expanding investment in storage and logistics could not only strengthen trade but also protect Brazil from future shocks.”
More from South China Morning Post:
- ‘Final hurrah’: China’s exports up 12.4% in March amid pre-tariff rush
- Trump tariffs may make China’s domestic economy stronger in long run, insider says
- Why a renewed US-China trade war could yield bumper harvest for Brazilian farmers
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