Internacionalización de las empresas agrícolas y ganaderas chinas (2006-2021)

This article aims to analyze the key elements that characterize the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of Chinese agricultural companies in the context of the current modernization of agriculture in the country. The premise is that the internationalization of companies in the sector is a strategy for accessing large competitive companies upstream in the value chain, such as intermediate goods, companies with higher levels of accumulated technological capacity, or to strengthen the brand in international markets. Therefore, the internationalization of agricultural companies is a way of internalizing industrial departments in the country's agriculture. State-owned enterprises, subordinated to the SASAC (State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission), can be considered the large Chinese enterprises that guide internationalization in a kind of division of labor that drives domestic economic activity in agriculture. Methodologically, the author developed the article by reviewing major studies on multinational enterprises in developing countries (especially China), multinational enterprises in agriculture and animal husbandry, and survey data and information on FDI transactions by Chinese enterprises in agriculture since 2013. It presented its FDI pattern based on these sources. In addition, it briefly describes the history, organizational structure, and some indicators of the state-owned multinational COFCO Group. It may be considered the leading company in the sector in China and the one that drives the creation, consolidation, and growth of companies operating in the country's domestic food and beverage market. Its strategy is, for example, to comply with the revitalization of the rural environment presented by the State Council and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The main conclusion is that China's agricultural modernization articulates small and large-scale production, and multinational companies are pulling this articulation, making China increasingly occupy a leading position in the international agri-food system.