China Agriculture View

As the primary component of planting cost, seeds are at the upstream of the industry of produce, and competitiveness of the seed market decides the initiative of competition in agriculture. China is a big agricultural State, and the utilization amount of seeds for planting purpose is over 12.5 billion kg per year. The capacity of the market of seeds of hybrid corn, hybrid rice, vegetables and cotton surpassed 31.5 billion yuan in 2008. The huge market makes the seed industry of China the focus of capital investment.

The competition of the seed market of China is relatively scattered, there is a large quantity of seed companies but of small scales, hence the concentration level of the seed industry is low. The thick profit, huge market, technical and policy barriers make the seed industry an eye catching sub sector of agriculture. Alongside the constant standardization of the seed market in China in late years, there have been mergers now and then. How is the current status of the seed market of China? How is the competition of the segmented markets of different varieties? How will be the seed industry or policy development in 2009-2010? What is the trend?

we organized experts on market, technology and finance to have an accurate, objective, comprehensive and systematic in-depth analysis of the market, enterprises and policy of the seed industry, and compiled a portrait of the current status of China’s seed market comprehensively and thoroughly. Also, professional viewpoints on the development direction of the seed market were concluded for reference. This report is one of the series of reports which cover China’s corn seed market, rice seed market, vegetable seeds market and cotton seed market. The special report on vegetable seeds market has in-depth research on vegetable seeds and the main segmented markets of different varieties. The segmented markets are seeds of tomato, cucumber, eggplant, chili, Chinese cabbage, radish, cabbage, carrot, celery and cowpea. This research report aims to have an accurate understanding of the development direction of China’s vegetable seeds market from 2009-2010 through analysis of the market, analysis of import and export and analysis key seed companies.

This report is a rare special research for industrial investors, strategic investors and large-scale seed companies both from home and abroad that pay attention to China’s seed industry. This report can also be an important reference for Titans in the seed or related industries, research institutions; investment banks, funds or security agencies that wish to learn the current status of China’s seed industry understand the trend or find investment opportunities.

Zimbabwe and China are negotiating arrangements for contract farming as the Asian giant steps up efforts to assist the country’s agrarian reforms.

This was revealed by Secretary for Foreign Affairs Ambassador Joey Bimha at a symposium on China-Africa and China-Zimbabwe relations.

“There are indeed ongoing negotiations for contract farming arrangements in the agricultural sector. The greatest impact of Chinese involvement in Zimbabwe has been in the agricultural sector, which as you know is the backbone of the economy,” he said.

China has provided US$260 million to Zimbabwe to support the agricultural sector for the purchase of inputs and machinery.

“We have been able to acquire equipment, implements and critical inputs for the revival of this sector.

“This support for the agricultural mechanisation programme has been complemented by the secondment of experts in the areas of animal disease control, fisheries and grain,” said Ambassador Bimha.

Zimbabwe has also been designated as one of the 10 countries in Africa to host the first 10 agricultural demonstration centres in Africa.

Apart from the support in agriculture, China has also supported the countriy’s mining and manufacturing sectors with the China-Africa Development Fund acquiring shareholdings in Zimasco and uranium joint ventures with the Zimbabwe Mining Development Company.

Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Xin Shunkang, yesterday said they had provided at least US$300 million to the country in the past three years and urged the strengthening of ties between the two countries.

“In the past three years, the total amount of aid that the Chinese Government provided to the Zimbabwean Government is approximately US$300 million.

“Let’s make joint efforts to push China-Africa, China-Zimbabwe friendship to a new height,” he said.

The price of garlic in China has nearly quadrupled since March, propelled by its very pungency to rank ahead of gold and stocks as the country’s best-performing asset this year.

The trigger for the bull run may have been the idea that the potent bulb can ward off H1N1 swine flu, Morgan Stanley economists said.

That chimes with some anecdotal evidence. The China Daily reported last week that a high school in Hangzhou, a prosperous city in eastern China, had bought 200 kg of garlic and forced students to eat it every day for lunch to stay healthy.

“I don’t know about H1N1, but it can prevent ordinary colds,” Zhang Ping, 74, told Reuters at a vegetable market in Beijing. “Take me. I’ve not had cold for many years and every year I buy several dozen pounds of garlic.”

Others have been looking for darker forces behind the surge.

China Business News said coal mine bosses — who are often depicted as being both extremely rich and nefarious speculators — had been playing the garlic market, hoarding bulbs and hauling them between storehouses.

Garlic served as a case study of the asset price appreciation that Morgan Stanley thinks China will have to contend with after a flood of lending by banks to help fight off the global financial crisis.

In some parts of Shandong province, the wholesale price of garlic is up as much as 40-fold.

“Too much liquidity in any market can lead to speculation,” analyst Jerry Lou said in a research note this week. “The most recent evidence of asset speculation in China’s commodity markets has been for garlic.”

But a more mundane factor may lie at the root of it all.

Garlic prices were extremely low last year, convincing many farmers that it was not worth planting the crop again, a wholesale trader was quoted as saying in the Nanfang Daily.

Supply could not keep up with a pick-up in demand from home and abroad, sending prices sky-high, the trader said.

Yi Xianrong, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a top government think-tank, said there was no need for panic.

“The garlic market is cyclical. Price rises are short-term and they will fall again before long,” Yi told Reuters.

(Reporting by Simon Rabinovitch and Christina Hu; Editing by Chris Lewis)

Visitors chat as they take a break in a courtyard enclaved with blooming flowers at Yangling Agricultural Hi-tech Fair in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province Nov. 3, 2009.

Citrons and lemons on a grafted tree is presented at Yangling Agricultural Hi-tech Fair in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province Nov. 3, 2009

Plants are presented in containers coverd with blue jeans at Yangling Agricultural Hi-tech Fair in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province Nov. 3, 2009.

The exhibition includes: Seeds and Seedlings, Cereal Crops, Cotton, Oil Plants, Vegetables, Fruits, Pastures and Turfs, Flowers, Woods, Agro-Chemicals, Seed Coatings, Pesticides, Fungicides, Chemicals, Technology, Machinery and Facilities, Processing and Packing Machinery, Test Equipment, Analysis Instruments, Intellectual Properties, Breeding Methodology, Books and Documents, Medias, Consultations.

Seminar and Promotion Activities
In conjunction with the expo, there will be holding global seed industry summit and a series of seminars and conferences，inviting speakers like technical experts and industrial professionals, featuring issues on the property right control and the latest development and prospects of seed industry.

China International Seed Summit 2009
Time: November 25th-26th，2009
Venue: Guangzhou Dongfang Hotel
Organizer: Agricultural Trade Promotion Center, MOA
CCPIT-Specialized Sub-council of Agriculture
Sponsor: DuPont-Pioneer Seed Company
Monsanto Far East Limited.
Phone: (+86 10) 5919 4401
Email: yuantong@agri.gov.cn

Last week a cold front brought heavy snowfalls across northern and central Chinese provinces.The heave snow affected the traffic and people’s lives.At the same time, it is benefit for crops.

Heavy snow in China’s wheat belt in the north is conducive for the winter crop, particularly to help ease dry weather earlier, but it has delayed corn transport out of the areas, worsening already tight supplies in the south.

As much as 55 cm of snow fell this week in China’s provinces of Henan, the country’s largest wheat area, as well as in Hebei and Shandong, the China Meteorological Administration said.

Experts said the snow was beneficial to the wheat crop in China, the world’s largest wheat producer and consumer.

“The snowfall is more conducive for wheat, it brings moisture to the soil. Earlier, some wheat areas have had dry weather,” Zhao Guangcai, a researcher with Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, told Reuters.

But he said some young wheat leaves suffered minor freeze damage.

Another researcher with the Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences said the snow helped kill insects and save water for farmers.

Feed mills in China’s consuming south, however, could face tigher corn supplies because the snow in the north has prevented farmers from selling their new harvest and delayed rail transport.

“Corn supplies are quite tight these days; there are some delays in transport,” said one official with the New Hope Group in the southwest province of Sichuan. The company was also looking for more imports from neighbouring countries [ID:nPEK205454].

The China National Grain and Oils Information Center said the bad weather also could reduce supplies for markets in Guangdong. Tight supplies have driven up China’s physical corn prices <0#ASCORN-CN> even at harvest time.

BEIJING, Nov 2 – Many Chinese wheat-growing provinces in the north seeded clouds over the weekend to help end a persistent drought and encourage the growth of winter wheat.

In Shandong, one of the country’s major wheat-growing areas, jets and rockets were used to bring rain and ease the drought that had hit 800,000 hectares of farmland by the end of October, the China Meteorological Administration said.

Cloud seeding brought Anhui province as much as 40 mm of rain over the weekend, easing dryness since September, the bureau said in a report on its website (www.cma.gov.cn).

Seeding coupled with a sharp fall in temperatures also brought the winter’s first snow to the capital on Sunday.

Beijing Weather Modification Office used 186 doses of silver iodide since late Saturday, which brought additional snowfall of more than 16 million tonnes equivalent, said the official Xinhua news agency.

“We won’t miss any opportunity of artificially inducing precipitation since Beijing is suffering from the lingering drought,” Xinhua cited weather official Zhang Qiang as saying.

Chinese farmers completed planting this year’s winter wheat at the end of last month. China has said it will try to persuade farmers to stabilise planting acreage. China harvested 2 percent more winter wheat or nearly 110 million tonnes this year.

While the moisture was good for winter wheat, sharp temperature falls can damage vegetable crops and kill young livestock, warned the Agriculture Ministry.

Source: Reuters

US wheat futures slipped on Tuesday, extending losses to near a one-week low as investors booked profits after last week’s strong rally on a steady US dollar.

Soybeans and corn edged higher after losses in the previous session on prospects of better harvest weather next week.

“We have seen the dollar claw back some ground and that is in conjunction with a negative turn in macroeconomic sentiment,” said Toby Hassall, an analyst with Commodity Warrants Australia.

“We had such a significant move in wheat last week, really there wasn’t a huge degree of fundamentals behind that rally in terms of global demand and supply.”

Wheat surged last week to a four-month high, propelled by fund buying and rains that delayed sowing of the US winter wheat crop. Corn and soybean also rallied as wet weather slowed the harvest of this year’s big crops.

But forecasts of favourable weather and a strengthening dollar knocked down the grain markets on Monday, with corn dropping 5 per cent, wheat losing 3.8 per cent and soybeans 1.9 per cent.

The US Agriculture Department said that soybean harvest was 44 per cent complete as of October 25, well below the five-year average for late October of 80 per cent. Corn harvest was 20 per cent complete compared with the five-year average of 58 per cent.

Traders had been expecting the USDA report to show that soybean harvest was 50 to 55 per cent complete and corn harvest was 20 to 25 per cent complete.

“If we do start to see a favourable outlook for harvest than that harvest delay risk premium is going to be wiped out,” said Hassall.