（Singapore, 25.09.2026）In September 2026, during the 23rd China-ASEAN Expo, the China-Cambodia AI Agricultural Science and Technology Industrial Park project was signed, covering a planned area of over 3,000 mu (approximately 200 hectares) with seven major segments including smart agriculture and deep processing of agricultural products. In the same month, the China-ASEAN (Beihai) International Aquatic City, with a planned total investment of 2.5 billion yuan, broke ground. These projects point to the same trend: Chinese agricultural companies going overseas are shifting from cross-border trade to overseas industrial deployment.
In the past, Chinese agricultural companies going global were mainly engaged in agricultural trade — selling products abroad and concluding the transaction. But this model is being disrupted. The shift is being driven by three forces: demand, supply chains, and policy.
The first is demand-side pressure. ASEAN partners are no longer satisfied with purchasing seeds and equipment; they want Chinese companies to bring “an entire industrial operating model.” Poshanglang, President of the ASEAN Economic and Trade Promotion Association, noted that the cooperation logic between the two sides is shifting from “price-driven, short-term transactions” to “trust-driven, long-term collaboration.” China’s strengths in digital platforms and modern agricultural equipment are highly complementary to ASEAN’s digital transformation needs.
The second is the rigid demand from supply chains. The mature experience of Chinese companies in origin warehouse construction, sorting and processing, and cold-chain logistics is precisely the shortcoming of many ASEAN production areas.
Leong Cheng-wang, Executive Chairman of Zixin Group Holdings, said that while many ASEAN countries have advantages in land and labor, they lack a complete industrial chain spanning variety domestication, standardized cultivation, warehousing and preservation, deep processing, and market sales. Local partners are no longer satisfied with importing seeds and equipment; they want Chinese companies to export an entire industrial operating model and drive local industrial upgrading.
The third is the opening of a policy window. Since the entry into force of RCEP, the share of intermediate goods trade in the region has risen from about 65% in 2021 to 68.3% in 2024, deepening cross-border industrial collaboration. In September 2026, the fifth RCEP Ministerial Meeting agreed to launch the accession process, further evolving regional investment rules toward transparency and facilitation, providing a more predictable institutional environment for cross-border capacity cooperation.
The essence of the industrial park model is to “package” the entire chain — breeding, cultivation, processing, warehousing, and sales — and export it, forming a closed industrial loop locally.
The core value of this model lies in its “agglomeration effect.” Overseas agricultural parks, with domestic enterprises as the main body, are built in defined areas through agreements with host governments, creating industrial parks with complete industrial chains, high concentration, and sound public service functions. This helps leverage the platform’s driving role and reduces the cost and risk of international operations.
Enterprises entering the park can share infrastructure, policy incentives, and public services. Compliance costs, logistics support, and talent training — issues that individual companies find difficult to handle independently — can be resolved through the park platform.
For agriculture, the significance of industrial parks is even more special. Agricultural industrial chains are long and involve many links, from seeds to the dining table, spanning breeding, cultivation, processing, warehousing, logistics, and sales. Single-point breakthroughs are unlikely to create sustained competitiveness. The industrial park model concentrates the entire chain in one spatial carrier, making coordination between links possible and forming a “miniature” industrial ecosystem locally.
It is worth noting that building parks overseas presents both challenges and opportunities. Liu Yonghao, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of New Hope Group, pointed out that Chinese agricultural companies going global still face practical issues such as difficulties in hedging exchange rate risks, insufficient international benchmarking of agricultural standards, and a gap between “going out” and “getting in.”
Zixin Group’s overseas experience provides a practical reference for this assessment. Leong Cheng-wang said that a model that works domestically cannot simply be copied; it must undergo deep localization. The challenges are concentrated at four levels.
The first is the localization and domestication of varieties. Directly introducing mature domestic varieties leads to fluctuations in yield, disease resistance, and taste. Time must be invested in trial planting and improvement to adapt to ASEAN’s high-temperature and high-humidity environment.
The second is country-specific differences in policy compliance. Land systems, foreign investment access, agricultural product quarantine, food regulation, labor, and tariff rules vary from country to country. The upfront compliance research costs for asset-heavy industrial parks are high, with little margin for error.
The third is infrastructure shortcomings. Cold chains and origin facilities in some ASEAN countries are insufficient. Mature domestic supply chain systems cannot be directly transplanted and must be jointly built with local partners, raising upfront investment.
The fourth is the cross-regional challenge of operations and talent. Overseas bases require both core teams familiar with the company’s industrial system and local talent who understand the local language, regulations, and consumer market. There is a significant shortage of compound talent. At the same time, consumer preferences and channel structures differ markedly from those in China, requiring products and brands to be re-polished.
The logic of Chinese agriculture going global has already changed. Building a park is only the first step. Whether the industrial park can truly take root locally tests not only financial strength, but also the patience and wisdom of localization.
