At the core of the China-Ghana trade deal is a fundamental need to know what the real motives of the Chinese are; the actual cost to be incurred by Ghana in the deal and how much China will really gain?

A former Ambassador to China, Anani O. Demuyakor, appears to have cracked the code.

Speaking from years of experience as both a student and a diplomat in the country, the former ambassador believes “what the Chinese need is food” and not the country's natural resources.

To emphasize his point, Mr Demuyakor revealed that food is an essential part of the Chinese culture and that market ought to be sought after, instead of the natural resources Ghana is willingly battering for infrastructural development.

“The Chinese do not need bauxite, they don’t gold or copper. The Chinese have all these natural resources in their country,” he revealed.

He insisted that these were mere “wants” and Ghana had a lot more to benefit if government would enter into a food deal to attract their (Chinese) farmers to work with us, “and not for us.”

The former ambassador was a participant at the Second Edition of the Citi Business Forum themed “After China What Next”?.