Factors Influencing Agricultural Products Trade between China and Africa

Abstract

Studies on the factors affecting agricultural trade between China and Africa are of practical significance to ensure the healthy and sustainable development of their agricultural cooperation and to strengthen the strategic outcome of China’s “one belt, one road” strategy. Firstly, this paper posits research hypotheses considering six aspects—economic scale, geographical and demographic factors, natural resource endowment, the level of agricultural science and technology, political factors, and exchange rate factors—and then performs an empirical analysis based on an extended gravity model by using data on China from the UN COMTRADE and other data on 58 Africa countries from 2010 to 2019. The results indicate that China’s GDP, African countries’ GDP, the years of education of the African population, the average arable land per capita of African countries and the renewable water resources per capita in Africa have positive effects on the trade flow of agricultural products between China and Africa. Geographical distance and China’s exchange rate have a negative impact on trade flow. The impact of the human capital index of China and the “one belt, one road” policy are not significant. Next, in order to analyze the impact of these factors on different regions of Africa, this paper uses sub samples to test the regional heterogeneity and discusses the relevant issues. Finally, some countermeasures are put forward: the top-level design and overall layout of bilateral cooperation should be consolidated, the stereoscopic traffic network construction of bilateral trade should be accelerated, and the upgrading of agricultural technology should also be accelerated.