Behind China’s Overseas Food Investments: A Tale of Two Dairies

Abstract

ABSTRACT China’s wave of outbound foreign direct investment (OFDI) in food production has created vast commercial opportunities for host countries but has also raised concerns about political dependence on the Chinese market, charges of commodity expropriation, and concerns over the loss of food brands and technologies. While most attention is focused on the political drivers behind Chinese investments in grain production, this article examines the dairy industry, a sector that answers both to policy, and to productive and consumer forces. Using records from the Shanghai Stock Exchange, this article examines the rise of OFDI by China’s dairy giants as the result of the consolidation of the domestic industry, the political promotion of agrarian globalisation, and the complex consumer appeal of foreign foods. Against this background, two contrasting case studies show how the aims and strategies of dairy investments have changed. Guangming’s disastrous 2014 purchase of a controlling stake in Israel’s Tnuva dairy cooperative capped off the initial rush for branded assets. In contrast, the China Animal Husbandry Group’s successful investment in the Mataura Valley Milk plant in New Zealand represents the subsequent trend towards greenfield investments in productive capacity.