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African exporters tap into e-commerce boom as Changsha cultivates demand
02:43

Dancing to tribal drum beats, wearing full Maasai costume and speaking fluent mandarin, Benjamin Watuma is getting tens of thousands of views on his livestreams on Chinese e-commerce site Taobao, where he sells plant products from his hometown in Kenya. A botanist by training, Watuma is confident in a growing Chinese appetite for natural, organic food and other consumer products from Africa. He is looking to expand to more social media platforms and potentially open a new studio outside his current office in Shenzhen. With free trade policies and industrial facilities designed for China-Africa trade, Changsha City in central China's Hunan Province presents an alluring package.

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