Chinese agricultural exports. Shedding light on a hidden development

Panel organised by: Karsten Giese (GIGA Institute of Asian Studies, Hamburg)
giese@giga-hamburg.de

Panel description

Over the last two decades China has managed to become not only the industrial sweatshop of the world economy but also the largest exporter of a large number of agricultural commodities. This does not only include ginger, garlic etc.. Usually, in Europe this role is only acknowledged, if goods of Chinese origin are involved in a food scandal. But beyond such temporary bad publicity, the roles of Chinese agricultural goods and players within global agro-food value chains remains largely unexplored. This panel seeks to generate greater insight into these developments by bringing together contributions ranging from case studies to structural analyses in fields such as specific products or actors to broader analyses national and sub-national Chinese agricultural policies to value chain analyses and impact studies regarding both the Chinese and importing countries’ markets and societies. Labor issues can be addressed and food safety standards are potential topics beyond economic and policy assessments. Contributions from all disciplinary backgrounds are welcome.

Paper proposal