UNDERSTANDING THE CHALLENGES OF CHINESE AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENTS IN AFRICA: AN INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS

In recent years, Chinese state-owned, private and family-based enterprises have increased their investments in Africa’s agriculture sector. Scholars have primarily sought to understand the motives of these enterprises embarking to Africa. Nevertheless, few studies have endeavoured to investigate the extent to which Chinese actors are able to implement their motives on the ground. This paper aimed to discuss the manner in which Chinese agricultural enterprises operating in Mozambique and the DRC interact with institutional contexts – the physical and legal environments that prevail on the ground. Based on semi-structured interviews conducted in Mozambique and the DRC in 2011, this paper held that Chinese agricultural enterprises operating in these two countries have been affected by local environments. While in some instances, they have been obliged to abandon their investment projects, in others, they have adopted specific business model or different line of business in order to dodge obstacles associated with unfavourable environments