It was learned from the Hunan Department of Commerce on September 9 that, the DECX Group Tanzania Branch, a Chinese company in Africa, was recently authorized for developing 80,000 acres of land (approximately 324 square kilometers) by the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania. This marked that China's largest agricultural project in Africa officially began and entered construction stage. The project is an important cooperation result of the first China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo (CAETE).

At the first CAETE in 2019, DECX Group and the Tanzania Agricultural Export Processing Zone signed an investment and cooperation framework agreement for the agricultural export processing zone. According to the agreement, DECX Group will build an 80,000-acre cooperative development park in southern Tanzania, including a 10,000-acre export processing zone and a 70,000-acre agricultural plantation. Upon completion, an estimated 2 million tons of new agricultural products will be exported every year, through the agricultural product “purchase plus plantation” mode.

Tanzania’s agricultural products are mainly exported though the port in Dar es Salaam, which is located in the north, and far from the agricultural production areas in the south. The cost of logistics is high. DECX Group plans to transform the Masoko Port near the southern agricultural production area into a multi-functional terminal, with 3,500 acres of areas for new town, logistics, and airport services, to fundamentally solve the problem of high transportation costs for agricultural exports. The project will be jointly constructed and operated with Chinese port operators.

DECX Group has been deeply involved in African market for 17 years. It boasts the most mature professional teams in China's small agricultural products trading industry and the most complete industrial chain layout of China-Africa agricultural cooperation. It is the world's largest integrated service platform for small agricultural products. The Group is optimistic about the broad prospects of Hunan-African cooperation and the leading role of China-Africa in-depth economic and trade cooperation pilot zone. It plans to establish a southern China center in Hunan, and is currently negotiating site selection in the Hunan Pilot Free Trade Zone.

A total of 81 projects were signed at the first CAETE, and all generally progressed smoothly. The hybrid rice planting in Nigeria of the Yuan's Hi-tech Seed Co., Ltd. and the corn planting in Ghana of the Longping Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. have entered formal implementation stage. The second phase of the Morocco aluminum wheel project of CITIC Dicastal Co., Ltd. has been put into production. The investment and operation entity of the Hunan Industrial Park in Uganda was registered and established, and the land transfer procedures are being promoted. One of the five factories in the Côte d’Ivoire natural rubber processing project of Jihua Group Yueyang New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. has been completed and put into operation, with a total investment of about 100 million USD.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Yu Jiangjiang

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn