Internationalization (pillar II)

With the intensive growth of international meat production—which has increased fivefold in the last 60 years—debates about the sustainability of global food production have also increased. China in particular—as well as Brazil, the United States, and the European Union—has seen meat production rise. In Germany, production has dropped recently following an historical high in previous years. However, production data at national levels do not reflect the role of corporations also operating outside their countries of origin in the expansion of meat production. The influence of corporations in the meat-related value-creation chains on socioeconomic sustainability must be scrutinized against the backdrop of global production and trade relations and in line with various geographical standards.

The subprojects in this building block thus analyze the meat industry’s internationalization strategies in different geographical, political, economic, and cultural contexts. They also look at how these strategies affect local production relations, socioeconomic sustainability, sustainable food systems, and international inequality. We will do comparative analyses of the strategies used by German meat corporations and, for example, Chinese corporations based on South-South relations. 

Internationalization strategies of the meat industry and their implications for a sustainable development (subproject 1)

Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Christin Bernhold

German meat corporations have focused increasingly in the last several years on the international market, both in terms of goods export and foreign direct investment, for example, in Poland and Spain. This subproject is looking at these kinds of geographical expansion strategies in meat-producing value-creation chains and the reasons for them from an economic and geographical perspective. We will look at which political and economic factors determine internationalization strategies and what their implications are, especially for local production relations and sustainable food systems as well as for the structures and processes of inequality. 

Chinese invesments in the Argentinian meat industry and their implications for a sustainable development (subproject 2)

Coordinator: Dr. Emilia Ormaechea

This subproject analyzes the meat industry in Argentina and concentrates on the investments and strategies of Chinese stakeholders with a major interest in the production of meat in Argentina. The growing export of meat from China and the announcing of larger investment projects are part of a geopolitical context of intensifying relations between China and Argentina. However, this is happening on the basis of hierarchies and inequalities between both countries. Against this backdrop, the subproject researchers are looking at the meat industry in Argentina and the developmental strategies based on it as well as the strategies’ impact on production relations, economic sustainability, and inequality both in and between Argentina and China. The relationships between Chinese actors and Argentinian politics, local economic stakeholders, and civic stakeholders, as well as the impact of dominant production strategies on the implementation of the UN Sustainability Goals, will also be illuminated.