一家中国公司跨越半个地球，跑到阿根廷一个干旱的角落，在一片贫瘠的土地上种植大豆和其他作物——这件事听起来可能很反常。
但总部位于中国东北黑龙江省的一家国有农业公司——北大荒集团(Beidahuang Group)就打算在巴塔哥尼亚地区的黑河省(Río Negro)这么做。
事情如果顺利，由美洲开发银行(Inter-American Development Bank)提供融资的这个农业项目将在该地区普及灌溉技术，并把阿根廷主要经济作物的前沿阵地推进到传统大豆种植区以外，而中国将可为其快速增长的人口锁定粮食供给。北大荒旗下有9家各不相同的公司，还有一些农业调查中心，是中国首屈一指的粮食集团。该集团在2010年的粮食产量约为175亿公斤，其中谷物为150亿公斤——据该公司表示，这足够7500万人吃一年。
北大荒经过历时3年的谈判，终于进入阿根廷。此时此刻，中国对大豆和玉米的进口正随着国内肉类需求的增长而增长；另一方面，据联合国表示，全球粮食价格正处于历史高位。
去年中国在三宗大型能源交易中对阿根廷进行了巨额投资，使得该国成为中国在资源富饶的拉美地区的最重要立足点之一。为了满足国内蓬勃发展的经济的需要，中国正想方设法在拉美搞到能源和矿产，如今又把目光投向了粮食。
最近5年里，中国在外包农业方面日益活跃，签署了一系列海外合作协议，项目遍布古巴、俄罗斯、委内瑞拉、巴西和肯尼亚等地，而悄悄打头阵的正是北大荒，该公司名字的含义是"北方的大片荒野"。
据黑河省项目的策划者之一奥斯卡•戈麦斯(Oscar Gómez)表示，预计未来10年里，这个灌溉农业项目在基础设施方面的投资将达到15亿美元。
黑河省官员目前正鼓动中方考虑种植玉米、大麦、小麦、土豆、洋葱、南瓜、橄榄、葡萄和其他水果。"我们说，种大豆不赚钱……这里是玉米的理想种植地，我们正在这样劝说他们，"该省主管农业生产的胡安•曼努埃尔•阿卡蒂诺(Juan Manuel Accatino)表示。
当地官员否认该项目带有商业殖民色彩，认为中国并没有把阿根廷转变成一块遥远的自耕地。阿根廷是世界生产效率最高的农业国家之一。他们表示，所有土地仍处于阿方控制之下，中方将灌溉5个山谷，把圣安东尼奥港改建成具有出口能力的港口，并以市场价购买这里出产的农作物。项目发起方表示，劳动力将是本地人，而不是中国人，而种植商——他们中的许多人正守着贫瘠的土地无所作为——以后的销路会有保证。
戈麦斯表示，北大荒初期将投资2000万美元，10年内把总投资额增加到15亿美元。"我认为，我们可能从2012年起就开始出口产品，我们希望，10年内产量能够达到100万吨。"
在一个年价值40亿美元的农产品市场上，中国似乎不再甘于只当阿根廷的最大客户。阿根廷是全球最大的豆油出口国和第三大大豆出口国，同时也是全球最大的谷物生产国之一。目前该国出口的大豆，90%输往中国。然而，去年，为报复阿根廷的贸易限制措施，中国实施了为期6个月的阿根廷大豆进口禁令，损害了双方的关系。
紧盯着阿根廷土地的不只是中国人。印度旁遮普邦品质最好的农田的种植成本约为阿根廷部分地区的两倍。印度驻布宜诺斯艾利斯大使正鼓励本国投资者考虑前往阿根廷种植大豆、豆类以及其他作物。
译者/何黎
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001039371
It might sound perverse for a Chinese company to go half-way round the globe to grow soya and other crops on unproductive land in a dry corner of Argentina.
Yet that is what Beidahuang Group, a state-owned farm company based in the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang, is doing in the Patagonian province of Río Negro.
If it works, the Inter-American Development Bank-backed farming project will spread irrigation technology and expand the frontiers of Argentina's chief cash crop out of the traditional soya belt in exchange for helping China lock in food supplies for its fast-growing population. Beidahuang, which spawns nine separate companies plus agricultural investigation centres, is China's top food group. In 2010, it produced some 17.5bn kilos of grains including 15bn kilos of cereals – sufficient, the company says, to feed 75m people for a year.
Beidahuang's step into Argentina, which took three years of negotiations, comes at a time when China's imports of soya- beans and corn are rising to feed China's growing appetite for meat, and global food prices are at record highs according to the United Nations.
China invested heavily in three big energy deals last year that have turned Argentina into one of China's most important toeholds in resource-rich Latin America, where it is seeking to secure energy and minerals and now, food, for its booming economy.
China has been increasingly active in the past five years in outsourcing agriculture, signing a series of overseas deals, including projects in Cuba, Russia, Venezuela, Brazil and Kenya, quietly spearheaded by Beidahuang, whose name means "Great Northern Wilderness".
The irrigated agriculture project foresees infrastructure investments of $1.5bn over 10 years according to Oscar Gómez, one of the brains behind the project.
Río Negro officials are encouraging the Chinese to look at corn, barley, wheat, potatoes, onions, squash, olives, vines and fruit. "We say soya won't be profitable . . . This is ideal territory for corn, we're pushing for that," said Juan Manuel Accatino, provincial production minister in Río Negro.
Officials deny the project is commercial colonisation by China that turns Argentina – one of the world's most efficient farming nations – into a far-flung allotment. They say that all land will remain in Argentine hands and the Chinese will irrigate five valleys, upgrade the San Antonio port to enable exports, as well as pay market prices for the produce. Labour will be local, not Chinese, and the producers, many of whom today are sitting on unproductive land, will have a guaranteed market for their production, the project's sponsors say.
Beidahuang will invest an initial $20m, rising to $1.5bn over a decade, said Mr Gómez. "I think exports could start in 2012. We are hoping to reach production of 1m tonnes within 10 years."
The Chinese no longer appear to be interested in being simply Argentina's top client in an agricultural goods market worth $4bn a year. Argentina, the world's biggest exporter of soya oil and third-biggest of soya- beans, as well as one of the world's top cereals producers, already sells 90 per cent of its soya exports to China, though the relationship was marred by Beijing's six-month ban on soya imports last year, in retaliation for Argentine trade restrictions.
It is not only the Chinese who are looking keenly at Argentina. Prime Indian farmland in the Punjab costs about twice as much as in parts of Argentina, and the Indian ambassador in Buenos Aires is encouraging investors to consider Argentine land for producing soya, pulses and other crops.
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