COFCO

COFCO Corporation is a Chinese central state-owned enterprise founded in 1949, the same year the People’s Republic of China was established. The company now describes agriculture as its core business, with significant activities in food, finance, and real estate. At the end of 2025, COFCO reported total assets above RMB 700 billion and revenue of RMB 589.1 billion. [1]

Its history began with the North China Foreign Trade Company, established in Tianjin in February 1949, and the subsequent creation of state-owned cereals, oils, foodstuffs, and related trading companies. In 1961, the China National Cereals, Oils and Oilseeds Export Corporation and the China Foodstuffs Export Corporation were combined into a national import-and-export organization, which COFCO identifies as the channel for China’s trade in commodities such as wheat, corn, rice, and sugar for much of the following decades. [2]

COFCO now describes an integrated agri-food chain covering storage, logistics, processing, and trade across six continents, with assets in nearly 40 countries and regions and an annual agri-food operating volume of 180 million tons. Its product portfolio includes grains, oils, sugar, cotton, and other agricultural commodities, while its domestic role includes agricultural-product trading, oilseed and grain processing, food manufacturing, and logistics corridors connecting northern production areas with southern markets. [1] [3]

The group also has consumer-facing and financial businesses. COFCO says its food brands cover rice, flour, edible oil, sugar, wine and spirits, beverages, meat, tea, and dairy, and that its products reach more than four million sales outlets in China. A partnership-specific example is COFCO Coca-Cola, a joint venture established by COFCO and The Coca-Cola Company in 2000; it operates 20 bottling plants in 19 provincial markets and produces and distributes Coca-Cola products in its authorized territories. COFCO’s corporate office is in Beijing, so the earlier Zhangjiagang headquarters entry is corrected here. [1] [4] [5]