The Common Sense was invited to a briefing hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Pretoria last week, where Ambassador Wu Peng and several subject-matter experts set out the opportunities created by China’s zero-tariff policy for African countries, including South Africa. The briefing focused on what the policy could mean for agriculture, processed goods, wood products, plant-based products, branding, ports, regulation, payments, investment, and African regional supply chains.

China extended zero-tariff access to a large number of African countries, including South Africa, from the beginning of May, meaning that goods from those countries can enter China without the usual import duties being added at the border, making them cheaper and more competitive in the Chinese market.

Because many African economies will now face the same tariff treatment when selling into China, there is greater opportunity to build cross-border supply chains aimed at the Chinese market. Production, processing, packaging, logistics, and export services can be spread across different African economies according to where each has the strongest commercial advantage.

The presentation linked this directly to the African Continental Free Trade Area. African countries were encouraged to build regional supply chains that can produce goods at the right scale and standard for the Chinese market.

The presentation also cautioned that market access only creates opportunity. The gains will depend on the strength of Africa’s own trade, regional, and industrial policy. In practical terms, tariff-free access helps only if African firms can produce enough goods, process them to the right standard, and move them reliably into China.

Ambassador Wu said South Africa enters this opportunity with a strong industrial base in automotives, mineral processing, manufacturing, and metals. Over time, he said tariff-free trade could increase industrial competition and deepen the commercial relationship between the two countries. He encouraged more Chinese companies to invest locally in South Africa, provided that the local regulatory environment supports that investment.

Professor Yang Jun, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, focused on South Africa’s export potential. His academic work includes research on China-Africa agricultural trade and how Chinese tariff and investment policies affect African agricultural exports to China.

Yang said South African fruit and vegetable exports to China already enjoy a significant price advantage and, based on his trade data, could increase by more than 80%. He also identified wood and wood processing as sectors with strong potential for South Africa and other African economies, saying African countries have a price advantage in wood products and finished wood-processed products, while Chinese imports of wood from Africa are expected to grow rapidly.

The briefing also highlighted flowers, coffee, plant extracts, tea, aloe, nuts, fruit, and vegetables as areas of opportunity. Yang said Chinese imports from Kenya in some of these categories had grown by more than 100%, and that Zimbabwe, Ghana, and South Africa could also benefit from rising Chinese demand.

For South Africa, products such as rooibos, aloe, flowers, nuts, tea, fruit, and vegetables were presented as already attractive to Chinese consumers. These products have distinct characteristics that give South African firms room to compete on quality, identity, and price.

Yang said South African firms should look beyond China’s largest cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, but also towards China’s smaller but rapidly developing cities like Xiamen, on the coast, and Kunming, the capital of China’s southwestern Yunnan province. They are still big commercial markets, but they are often cheaper and easier to enter than China’s largest cities. There may also be fewer rival foreign brands, while shoppers are more likely to respond to better prices.

South African companies should therefore explore the viability of breaking into these smaller but growing markets, where working professionals and a rising middle class are looking for high-quality finished goods. South African agricultural goods already have a price advantage, and that advantage may be especially useful in cities where consumers are more sensitive to price changes.

Yang said South African companies need to be proactive. Firms must take active steps to meet Chinese regulatory requirements, find out which rules and regulations they need to comply with, and work early with their Chinese counterparts. Exporters in fruit, vegetables, nuts, wood, and broader agricultural sectors need to understand Chinese supply chain processes and build working relationships with quarantine authorities, inspectors, and the relevant government officials who deal with imports and exports.

Chinese consumers may already like some South African products, but firms still need Chinese partners to advertise those products, explain their benefits, and place them properly in the market.

The briefing placed the opportunity in a wider Africa-China trade context. Africa is increasingly being viewed as a potential breadbasket for China, holding vast swaths of the world’s fertile land. The briefing also stressed the need for stability, better ports, smoother trade systems, and easier movement of money between China and Africa.

For exporters, these are practical commercial issues. Fruit, vegetables, flowers, nuts, tea, wood, and processed products depend on timing, cold chains, predictable shipping, reliable customs systems, and fast payments. A price advantage in China will count for less if exports are delayed by weak port performance, unreliable logistics, slow customs systems, or unclear regulations that make Chinese firms more cautious about investing in African supply chains.

Ambassador Wu said now is the time for China and South Africa to work together to translate the opportunity into real trade and investment. He also said that as long as businesses on both sides see the opportunity, trade relations will improve. He described the agreement as a new example of solidarity and cooperation across the Global South.