Financialization and geopolitical imperatives of Sino-African Agri-food production networks in a turbulent world

Despite increasing attention on the integration of agricultural industries in the Global South into the Global Production Networks (GPN) and Global Financial Networks (GFN), the financial mechanism of agri-food trade, particularly between the Global South countries, in contemporary geopolitical tensions remains underexplored. The U.S.-China trade war, which weaponized soybeans, and the Ukraine war, which destabilized supply chains of sesame seeds, have prompted China to diversify its sourcing from traditional suppliers of agri-food, such as soybeans and sesame seeds, like the U.S., Brazil, and Ukraine to African economies. Based on intensive field investigation in Nigeria and Tanzania during 2020 and 2024, this paper examines the divergent financialization of Sino-African agri-food trade in geopolitical tensions. While Tanzania's soybean sector has been strategically couplied in the global markets led by Chinese lead firms (e.g., Longping and China Oil and Foodstuffs Corporation) and supported by off-take agreements and phytosanitary protocols under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Nigeria's sesame seed industry has been constrained by the informal credit systems, lack of formalized trade mechanisms and vulnerability. This study advances the GPN and GFN research by conceptualizing financialization mechanisms amidst geopolitical tensions while reinforcing power asymmetries between host and home countries.