JOHANNESBURG, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Growing agricultural cooperation with China is opening up new opportunities for South Africa's farming sector, giving fresh impetus to production and rural economic development, an industry representative has said.
In an interview with Xinhua, Andre van der Vyver, executive director of the South African Cereals and Oilseeds Trade Association, called enhancing cooperation with China "very important."
"It is a reliable market that we can depend on over the medium to long term," he said.
Under the cooperation, exports would encourage production and add more value to the local economy, specifically the regional and rural economies, he said.
China, a major soybean importer, offers South African producers access to a large and diversified market, van der Vyver said, adding that such access would provide the scale and certainty needed to support the continued expansion of South Africa's agricultural sector.
Applauding China's zero-tariff treatment for qualifying South African products, he said that, combined with South Africa's geographical freight advantage over major competitors, the removal of the tariff provides an important boost to exporters.
The tariff arrangement could also create opportunities for a wider range of agricultural products, including maize and fruit, van der Vyver added.
Beyond commodities, he said, there was considerable scope to deepen cooperation across the agricultural value chain, including agricultural equipment, technology, logistics, infrastructure and market access.
Van der Vyver said that South Africa has already imported Chinese agricultural equipment, and that Chinese expertise and investment in infrastructure could help address major constraints facing the country's agricultural exporters, particularly in rail, roads and ports.
"The interaction of exporting products while leveraging China's technology, equipment, and infrastructure capabilities creates a very valuable bilateral trade relationship moving forward," he said.
"Partnering with China will definitely add strong value to our agricultural sector and rural economies, so we are very excited about it," said van der Vyver. ■