China Is Building Megaports in South American Countries to Feed Its Need for Crops

China has reassured its citizens they would have enough to eat without U.S. crops.

- Samantha Pearson

It will have to unclog Latin America's largest port first.

The decrepit port in this Atlantic coast city is the main gateway for South American exports of soybeans and other agricultural goods that represent China's only viable alternative supply to U.S. exports.

Though China has reduced its reliance on U.S. foodstuffs, crops are still among the top U.S. exports to China.

China's state-owned agricultural conglomerate, Cofco, is building its biggest export terminal outside China at the port to manage shipments of corn, sugar and soybeans. It would increase the company's annual export capacity to 14 million tons from 4.5 million, but isn't expected to reach full capacity until next year.

The Santos port fits into China's wider plan to secure access to South America's agricultural bounty amid shortages of water and arable land at home. Chinese companies are laying hundreds of miles of railroad across Brazil's agricultural heartland and finishing work on a $3.5 billion deep-water port on Peru's Pacific coast.

The trade war with the U.S. has heightened the urgency of these projects. Chinese leader Xi Jinping met South American leaders including Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Beijing on Monday to discuss their deepening ties.

Brazilian officials are welcoming the chance to draw foreign investment to the country's rickety roads, railroads and ports.

"We need more and more infrastructure," Renan Filho, Brazil's transportation minister, said in an interview.