Director-General of the Department of African Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs visited South Africa and expressed that the demand for China-South Africa beef trade has further increased

Recently, Wu Peng, Director-General of the African Department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, visited African countries to promote China-Africa relations. During his visit to South Africa, Director-General Wu Peng met with the Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa, Alvin Botes, in Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa. Wu Peng said that the China-South Africa comprehensive strategic partnership continues to deepen and is a model of China-Africa cooperation and South-South cooperation. China is willing to, together with South Africa, continue to consolidate bilateral political and strategic mutual trust, consolidate the high-level development momentum of China-South Africa relations, and safeguard the common interests of developing countries.

Deputy Minister Botes welcomed Wu's visit to South Africa and said that nothing can stop the rapid development of strong bonds between China and South Africa. China is a reliable and true partner and friend of South Africa and African countries, and no country can stop South Africa from developing relations with China. . The South African side is willing to take this visit as an opportunity to further deepen the political mutual trust and practical cooperation between the two countries, strengthen exchanges and coordination on international and regional issues, and promote the deepening and practicality of the South Africa-China comprehensive strategic partnership.
The bilateral relationship between China and South Africa has also been restarted during Wu Peng's visit this time and is trying to elevate it to a higher level. Both sides expressed their intention to further their determination to strengthen bilateral coordination on regional and international issues. In addition, Wu Peng also said that the need for increased trade between China and South Africa is rising, including urgent needs such as beef exports to China.
On the vast African continent, two countries, South Africa and Namibia, have been approved to export beef products to China. Among them, South Africa officially entered the Chinese mainland market in 2017, and a total of 3 factories have been approved to export to China. However, the export of South African beef to China was suspended again due to the discovery of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in its country at the end of March this year. Previously, in February 2019, mainland China also suspended the import of beef from South Africa due to the domestic foot-and-mouth disease epidemic in South Africa, and then resumed it in early August of the same year after a lapse of five months.
According to data from Bifu (China), mainland China's beef imports from South Africa will perform better in 2020 and 2021, with annual imports reaching 11,000 tons and 10,000 tons respectively. However, the overall import volume of beef to South Africa this year is not good. The cumulative import volume in the first five months was only 2,740 tons, a significant decrease of 2,158 tons compared with the same period last year.
Mainland China's overall import volume to Namibia, another South African supplier of beef to China, is more limited. As early as 2016, Namibia had 2 factories approved to export beef products to China. However, due to frequent outbreaks of bovine nodular skin disease and foot-and-mouth disease in the country, the process of exporting to China was seriously hindered. Finally, the first batch of products was only available in March 2019. Namibian beef is shipped to mainland China. At the end of October 2021, due to the outbreak of bovine contagious pleuropneumonia in the country, the export of beef to China was suspended again and resumed after a lapse of more than a month.
Limited by Namibia's own beef production and other factors, the volume of beef imports from Namibia in mainland China has been relatively low. The data shows that since the actual trade exchanges, mainland China's beef imports from the country have been shrinking year by year, with imports reaching 2,974 tons in 2019, 2,036 tons in 2020 and 1,287 tons in 2021. Imports to the country fell further to 261 tonnes in the first five months of the year.