Dates for the forum, held every three years, are yet to be finalised.

Wu Peng, director general of the ministry’s department of African affairs, told independent multimedia news organisation the China Africa Project that Beijing was working on measures to ease the export of agricultural products from the continent to China, with details to be unveiled at the Dakar forum.

Wu said the ministry was working with its commerce counterpart, the customs authority and other agencies to map out the new policies which aim to boost agricultural imports from Africa and help reduce trade deficits.

“We are preparing some new measures to promote China-Africa trade relations, especially encouraging the importation of more agricultural products from Africa,” Wu said, while declining to reveal details ahead of the forum.

Wu said agriculture was the key to food security and that Chinese authorities were “thinking about how we can provide more easy access to the Chinese market for African agricultural products. There are a lot of African products that can enter the Chinese market, but it’s not enough”.

“So, what we can do now is to put some even more privileged policies or measures to encourage Chinese companies to import more products from Africa,” he said.

China’s African imports are dominated by natural resources such as crude oil, copper, cobalt, iron ore and diamonds, which it buys to meet its industrial and manufacturing needs. In return, Africa imports machinery, electronics, textiles and manufactured consumer goods from China.

China pledged during the 2018 FOCAC that it would support African nations by expanding imports – especially beyond natural resources. However, many countries still face tariff and non-tariff barriers to Chinese market access.

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Trade deals signed between China and some African countries have included agriculture, helping to narrow a trade deficit which has been mostly in China’s favour – last year, for example, Chinese goods worth US$114.22 billion were exported to Africa, compared to $72.75 billion in African products heading in the other direction. These trade numbers were affected by disruptions caused by the pandemic, according to China’s customs data.

Rwanda recently became the first African country to export dried chilli peppers to China, after young Rwandan entrepreneur Dieudonne Twahirwa secured a deal with China’s GK International to export 50,000 tonnes of the product every year for five years – worth a total of $500 million, far more than Rwanda earns from its coffee and tea exports to China.

Twahirwa, managing director of Gashora Farm which specialises in chilli exports, was elated at clinching the deal. “Having Chinese market access means a lot to me, for the huge demand in China, a reliable and sustainable market. This is not only for me but fellow Rwandan farmers,” he said.

China is home to the world’s largest number of dried chilli pepper consumers and Twahirwa said he had to comply with Chinese safety requirements, “not only our company but the country as well had to comply with Chinese food safety systems”.

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Other products in high demand in China include stevia, avocados, crayfish and beef, which all have to pass through the same safety processes as dried chillies, Twahirwa said.

Wu tweeted in August that Chinese importers would work with the Rwandan people in planting and processing, to give more added value by exporting facilities. “Hope more quality products from Africa will be on the way to China,” he said.

During a China-Africa agro-products online trade session hosted by Hunan Gaoqiao Grand Market, African cashew nuts, sesame seeds, pepper and spices were most popular among Chinese buyers, who placed orders worth $5.1 million on a single day.

Tanzania was last year allowed to export soybean to China, as Beijing sought to cut its reliance on the US and Brazil for supplies of the oilseed. Similar deals have been struck for Kenyan avocados, tea, coffee and roses, Ethiopian coffee and soybeans, beef products from Namibia and Botswana, fruit from South Africa, and Rwandan coffee.

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Michael Chege, a political economy professor at the University of Nairobi, said it was proving difficult for Africa to diversify its exports to China, in the same manner the continent was building new export production lines to the European Union and the US for cut flowers and other horticulture from Kenya and Ghana, as well as textiles and tourism.

“African exports to China are predominantly raw material resources such as oil, copper, iron and timber,” Chege said. “There are tariff and non-tariff barriers African products face entering the China markets which Beijing prefers to negotiate on a country-by-country basis.”

But, he said, “We should also acknowledge that African countries are not bringing sufficiently diverse and competitive products to the table”.