Shen Xiang, deputy director general of the West Asia and Africa Department of China's Ministry of Commerce, said China's peanut imports from Africa rose by 343% in 2019 and still have potential for future growth.

In recent years, China's imports of peanuts from Africa have increased rapidly. 'Africa has become the main source of China's peanut imports, and its importance to China's peanut industry is constantly increasing,' he said.

Shen Xiang said that China is a big peanut producer and has long been leading in this aspect in the world. Compared with the domestic consumption of peanuts, the import scale of peanuts from Africa is not large, accounting for less than 3%. The import of peanuts from Africa has played a supplementary and regulating role in the market and enriched the sources of China's oil crop imports. Diversification of peanut import sources can effectively spread risks and ensure the safety of oil crops in China.