China-Colombia steer trade towards cattle, but will US have a cow as Beijing makes Latin American inroads?
- Beijing is making inroads in Latin America, a region historically allied with the US, and China now considers Colombia a ‘strategic partner’
- Recent agreements signed between China and Colombia highlight new partnerships, including in water conservation and decarbonisation
Colombia’s all-important cattle industry expects to see a stampede of growth in exports to China following agreements signed between the two sides, and China’s smartphones will find a booming market in the South American country, the Colombian consul general in Hong Kong said this week.
The energised trade ties will deepen China’s foothold in Latin America, according to analysts who point to the region being more historically allied with the United States – its largest trade partner.
Beef exports to China will grow on the back of a bilateral protocol signed in September that covers sanitation measures for exportable farm products, Colombian Consul General Luis Fernando Orozco Barrera told the Post on Tuesday.
Colombia’s cattle industry employs just under a million people, or about 7 per cent of the nation’s workforce, he said. Last year, Colombia exported about 45,000 tonnes of beef worldwide, valued at US$200 million. And as of August this year, its global beef exports in 2023 had totalled 22,000 tonnes worth US$90 million.
“Regarding export projections to China, we expect at least 2,500 tonnes to be exported monthly – close to US$15 million,” he said.
“To give some perspective to the importance of this, keep in mind that … Colombian livestock, in macroeconomic terms, represents 3.3 times more than the coffee sector, and we are the third [largest] global coffee producer,” Orozco said, citing government and industry association data.