Multiple Krisen und Globale Produktionsnetzwerke: Neue Sojapartnerschaften zwischen China und Tansania im Rahmen der Belt and Road Initiative

This article analyses the implementation of a trade agreement between China and Tanzania aimed at integrating the Tanzanian periphery into the Chinese soybean production network as a supplier region. Based on research data from Tanzania, the article looks at measures that have been driving an unexpected soy boom at the supply end of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also known as the new Silk Road) since the COVID-10 pandemic. Our findings show that China is strategically developing new supply regions for soybeans in Africa as part of the BRI owing to the trade war with the USA, the COVID-19 pandemic and new geopolitical conflict lines, at least since the war in Ukraine. These crisis-driven interests converge with Tanzanian interests to revitalise the historical “all-weather friendship” with China and to use Tanzania’s non-alignment strategically for the economic transformation of the agricultural sector. With regard to applied geography, the case study shows that the new geopolitical zeitgeist, shaped by geopolitics and multiple crises, influences the dynamic organisation of production networks. New, crisis-related imperatives explain emergent forms of organisation that not only bring together surprising actors but also transform surprising spaces.