China Agriculture View

 In 2009, the domestic cotton production is expected to decline, at 700 million tons, with the gradual improvement in exports of textile production, cotton production and demand gap has been expanded; Meanwhile, cotton prices in general will be higher than the previous year, but a large number of listing a number of new cotton the main producing areas are still downward pressure on prices.

It is understood that this year’s cotton pre-Miao Qing in general is better, but in late August to early September the Yangtze River basin consecutive disastrous weather, some impact on the growth of cotton. Ministry of Agriculture, the latest survey data show, this year’s cotton acreage of about 7592 acres, down about 1,000 mu, a reduction of over 10%.

National Development and Reform Commission Zhang Xiaoqiang, deputy director said, at present, the national cotton crop is growing basically the same as the previous year, if the recent weather conditions are normal, and strengthen the latter part of management, is expected to have a good harvest, the national cotton output is expected to 700 million tons. From the National Bureau of Statistics data show that in 2008, national cotton acreage 8640 acres, down 240 million mu; cotton output of 7.5 million tons, up has decreased by 12 million tons.

Prices, Zhang Xiaoqiang said that from the look throughout the year, due to cut production of cotton, cotton production and demand gap in the expansion of cotton farmers a higher price expectations, cotton prices in general are expected to be higher than the previous year. However, after the listing of large concentrations of new cotton, the domestic market, cotton prices are still downward pressure, especially in the higher concentration of Xinjiang’s cotton market, downward pressure on cotton prices higher.

Zhang Xiaoqiang said that the next step, the National Development and Reform Commission will further strengthen macro-control and maintain the basic stability of cotton prices and the market running smoothly. On the one hand, do a good job of cotton reserves control plans. If a large number of new cotton market fell over when the cotton price, timely manner through open bidding part of the cotton purchasing and storage. Such as market cotton prices rose too quickly, then throw in time savings, stable cotton prices to ensure the needs of textile and cotton.

At the meeting, reporters learned at the same time, from next year, the government will intensify efforts to promote small packet of cotton and its processing enterprises out of the market. From September 2010, the railway authorities to stop packets of cotton transport, the Agricultural Development Bank to stop providing loans to small packets of cotton processing enterprises, cancel cotton packet processing of cotton processing enterprises eligible.

OCEX Show Idea 

Concern – the natural ecological environment 
Experience – Organic Healthy Living 

The fifth OCEX the show concept, this exhibition will bring together organic food and green food, organic cosmetics, organic textiles, natural fibers, environmental protection and recycling companies to show a focused exhibition and promotion. 

OCEX Introduction

The People’s Republic of China by the Ministry of Commerce approved by the Ministry of Commerce Trade Development Bureau, the food group, 3 Lee Advertising and Exhibition Co., Ltd. co-sponsored the Fifth China International Fair for organic food and green food will be in October 2009, 20-22 China International Trade Center in Beijing, was held. 

 COFCO is China’s largest grain and oil food import and export business and the strength of the food manufacturers in the agriculture, food production and processing and food import and export industry occupies the leading position. OCEX a good background in the resource base, after a four-year accumulation, bringing together the resources and channels for the organic industry by strictly controlling the qualification exhibitors, attracted from home and abroad hundred organic food and green food production enterprises, distribution enterprises, certification bodies, information service institutions, associations groups with their own products, the project came to show, in particular, organic food and green food in China developed rapidly in areas such as Beijing, northeast China, Shandong, Jiangxi and other places have participate in the exhibition in the organic industry has set a professional exhibition’s lead. 

The  Fifth OCEX will be concerned about – the natural ecological environment and experience – an organic concept of healthy living exhibition, bringing together organic food and green food, organic cosmetics, organic textiles, natural fibers, environmental protection and recycling companies to show a focused exhibition and promotion. Exhibition will be held over the same period a series of professional activities: “Organic food and green food Trade Development Forum”, “China Organic Feast,” “Wine and Food Festival”, organic eco-tourism, professional exhibitions to promote activities to enrich the content. Trying to build through a series of professional activities of organic food and green food suppliers, buyers exchanges and cooperation in the bridge give full play to the Ministry of Commerce Trade Development Bureau, COFCO and other authoritative institutions and corporate giants advantage of the resources and channels to help overseas organic food enterprises to expand the Chinese market, looking for production and processing enterprises and agents, through a professional’s global campaign to bring overseas pavilions and buyers to assist the Chinese organic, green food enterprises to expand international and domestic markets.

With organic food, organic products in China, the rise of COFCO as an industry pioneer, will be at this show with the domestic and international organic industry colleagues to seize this good opportunity to jointly promote the development of China’s organic industry, to allow more consumer awareness of organic products, the use of organic products, will also love life, love implanted in the hearts of the earth’s environmental philosophy.

China’s imports of US soybeans are unlikely to be affected by a trade dispute between the two countries over exports of Chinese tires, said Li Ming, general manager of the agriculture trading and logistics department of China National Cereals, Oils & Foodstuffs Corp (COFCO).

Concern spread earlier this month that US tariffs imposed on tires from China would spark a retaliatory slowdown in purchases of US crops and farm products.

The US placed tariffs of 35 percent on tires from China early this month, acting on a union complaint that imports were pushing workers out of jobs.

Following the US actions, China announced a probe into the alleged dumping of American automotive and chicken products.

China is the biggest buyer of US soybeans and the second-largest importer of poultry and pork.

Soybean growers in the United States, the world’s biggest supplier, want to increase livestock feed sales to small landowners in rural China to help boost exports, the United Soybean Board reported.

China’s feed industry consumes about 100 million tons of protein meal annually, with half of that used by small land-holders who often feed table scraps to their chickens, hogs and dairy cows, said Thomas Wray, a director of the board that helps market US soybeans internationally.

Only about 30 percent of China’s protein meal needs are met with soybean meal, Wray said.

China’s untapped rural feed industry “is the largest meal market in the world,” Wray, a Kansas soybean grower, said during a recent interview in Cebu in the Philippines.

“It’s a huge opportunity. What we’ve got to do is to continue to educate the rural part of China on how to feed their animals,” he said.

US growers are counting on expansion of the world’s third-largest economy to boost demand for meat and to encourage China’s farmers to switch to feed-meals to lift productivity. Soybean futures have dropped 21 percent since the end of May on a forecast for record US output in the 2009-10 marketing year.

China’s economy expanded 7.9 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, fueled in part by 4 trillion yuan in stimulus spending.

In 2008, bilateral trade amounted to $333.74 billion, making China and the United States each other’s second-largest trading partners.

In the past five years, American exports to China grew by 20 percent annually. Last year, China accounted for 49 percent and 34 percent of American soybean and cotton exports, respectively.

COFCO, the country’s largest oil and food producer, plans to build a soybean processing plant in southwestern China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region with a capacity of 1.2 million tons a year, according to a Xinhua News Agency report.

The report, citing sources familiar with the project valued at 1.85 billion yuan, stated that construction would likely be in Qinzhou in the Beibu Gulf economic zone.

In April, COFCO opened a 4 billion yuan oil-pressing project in Tianjin.

China’s major edible oil producers, including Sino Grain Oils & Fats Industrial Co and Jilin Grain Group, also plan to open new factories to boost capacity.

Per capita edible oil consumption is 14.5 kilograms a year in China.

In 2007, only 44 percent of capacity was in operation, and many of the closures were plants with a daily capacity below 1,000 tons, according to the report.

The Chinese government encouraged a restructuring of the industry to form some big companies that would have better logistics and port facilities, Liu Xiaonan, a commission official, said at a soy conference last month.

Liu said the government was encouraging soy plants to sign long-term contracts to ensure supplies because China relies heavily on imports.

A US-Chinese trade row threatened to spill over into soybeans on Thursday when a government researcher said US beans were being dumped in China.

But those in the industry said China was very unlikely to restrict shipments of its main agricultural import from its top supplier.

“The US government gives large amounts of subsidies to its farmers and dumps soybeans in China,” Chen Dongqi, vice-head of the macroeconomic institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, told a conference.

He suggested the United States was guilty of double standards after slapping a 35 percent punitive tariff on China-produced tyres this week. China hit back by saying it will investigate U.S. shipments of auto parts and chicken meat.

China imported a record 29.9 million tonnes of soybeans in the first eight months of the year, around 40 percent of which originated in the United States.

A senior manager at COFCO, China’s top food importer and exporter, confirmed that China had already looked into taking action on US subsidies for soybeans shipped to China.

“This proposal was raised earlier in the year. China’s government is quite rational on the issue. The government doesn’t want to have a trade war. It’s keeping calm over the issue,” said Li Ming, COFCO’s assistant president and general manager of COFCO Agri Trading and Logistics.

China has attracted record import volumes this year thanks to the government’s stockpiling campaign, in which it offers to buy local crops to shore up farmers’ incomes. That in turn sets a minimum price, opening the door to a flood of imports when global prices are lower.

But tariffs on US soy are unlikely. China was already dependent on cheap and plentiful foreign supplies even before a long drought hit its major growing regions in the northeast.

“There is no other source of cheap soybeans except the United States until at least March or April,” said Nobuyuki Chino, president of Tokyo-based grains trading company Unipac Grain. In later months, beans from Brazil and Argentina make up the bulk of imports.

“Even if the US government has imposed duties on Chinese tyres, I don’t think they will take such an action,” he added. China might be keen to retaliate against Washington, but hitting the soybean sector would not be the right way to go about it, a Chinese analyst said.

“The soybean trade volume has reached around $10 billion now, while tyre exports amounted to $2.2 billion, so China won’t choose soybeans to protest against the United States,” said Qin Pei at Guangtong Futures.

China’s concerns are not new. Beijing conducted a study into US farm subsidies last year but concluded that safeguard tariffs on soy imports would be impossible. It has since issued subsidies to its own soybean growers and crushers.

China remains uneasy about what it sees as a growing willingness on the part of the United States to resort to trade barriers.

Premier Wen Jiabao vowed in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Dalian last week that China would “fight resolutely” against all kinds of protectionism.

However the risk of tit-for-tat measures remains, with China already launching new anti-dumping investigations against US poultry and auto product imports.

China has filed just five complaints to the WTO, three of which have taken place in the last year. It has been the respondent in 16 complaints.

Source: Reuters

China’s weekly state soybean auctions failed to attract bidders in Jilin and Inner Mongolia, with only 15,500 tonnes of soybeans sold in northeast Heilongjiang, or 3.1 percent of the total volume offered.

The highest price paid was 3,790 yuan ($555.3) per tonne, down nearly 100 yuan compared with last week, when the market was concerned about a drought in the major soy-growing area of northeast China.

“It came as no surprise to the market,” said Xia Tian, a dealer at Zhejiang Yongan Futures. “Buyers won’t have interest in domestic soy reserves unless the U.S. soybean price goes up by $12 per tonne. Crushers hold enough stocks of imported soybeans. They can wait for the new soybean harvest.”

Beijing set the bidding price for domestic soy reserves at 3,750 yuan per tonne, about 4 percent higher than the U.S. crop for next January’s shipment.

“China has to sell the state reserves at the current price, otherwise it will suffer a loss as the government purchased soybeans from farmers at 3,700 yuan per tonne last year,” said Dong Shuangwei, an analyst at Capital Futures.

China has started to sell state soy reserves as part of efforts to reduce stockpiles and free storage ahead of the new domestic harvest, due next month, but only 85,300 tonnes were sold out of the large state reserves in the nine auctions.

China purchased about 7.3 million tonnes of soybeans for state reserves last year.

“The market is closely watching the overseas markets and controversial forecasts of a fall in output, ranging from 4 percent to 20 percent. However, as Beijing has enough reserves at hand and it has a policy of supporting farmers, the domestic soybean market will have a limited decline,” said Dong.

The following table shows the results of soybean auctions starting from July (volumes are in tonnes, prices in yuan per tonne):

Date Volume sold Highest price Volume

September 16 15,500 3,790 500,000

September 9 29,300 3,880 500,000

September 2 10,600 3,820 500,000

August 26 9,600 3,750 500,000

August 19 400 3,750 500,000

August 12 15,000 3,800 500,000

August 5 4,900 3,790 500,000

July 29 no bidders 500,000

July 23 no bidders 500,000

Total 85,300

Source: www.grainmarket.com.cn.

Cabbage may not be your idea of comfort food, but you can take solace in its health benefits and versatility. You can make salads, pizzas or sandwiches more nutritious just by adding some red roughage.

Cabbage is reach in Victamin C, as well as doses of fiber, folate and potassium.Red cabbage offers an easy way to get that extra shot of C you need, especially if you’re working out regularly, as we know you are. Keep in mind that red cabbage has twice the vitamin C as its green brother.So it is good for our health.

You can use any kind of cabbage to make sauerkraut: green, red, savoy, Napa or any other variety and in any combination. Since different varieties of cabbage have different colors, flavors and textures, the resulting sauerkraut will reflect that. For example, Savoy cabbage is firm, so a sauerkraut made with it will hold together more than a sauerkraut made with Napa cabbage, which is softer. A combination of red and green cabbage will lend your sauerkraut a pink hue.

If you like, you can even toss in vegetables like carrots and Brussels sprouts, and aromatics like onions and garlic for different flavor combinations. The possiblities are endless.

 Cabbage can also be pickled in vinegar with various spices, alone or in combination with other vegetables. Korean baechu kimchi is usually sliced thicker than its European counterpart, and the addition of onions, chilies, minced garlic and gingers is common.

The price of raw sugar soared to its highest level in almost 30 years on Friday, driven by investors worried about tight supplies and stout global demand for the sweetener.

A prime catalyst for the relentless rally in sugar is the worst monsoon in 40 years in No. 1 consumer India, forcing the teeming South Asian nation to book large imports of sugar ahead of its annual festival season this year.

New York’s October raw sugar contract jumped 1.03 cents, a rise of more than 4.5 per cent on the day, to end at 23.52 cents per lb, the loftiest finish for the sweetener since early in 1981.

London’s October white sugar contract climbed $14.80, up 2.65 per cent, to conclude at $573.10 per tonne.

‘People are talking 30 cents and we’re not that far away,’ Jack Scoville, vice president and senior analyst for brokers The Price Futures Group, said.

Alex Oliveira, senior sugar analyst for Newedge USA, said the momentum is definitely toward ever higher ground and a target of 30 cents is within sight.

Lars Steffensen, managing director of UK-based commodities fund Ebullio Capital Management, said investment funds have poured wholesale into sectors like sugar.

‘With all the money that’s been thrown at the commodities sector at the moment some of these prices are skewed to ridiculous degrees and sugar is one of them,’ he explained.

Sugar has trumped jitters over a global economic recovery because several countries may need to import the sweetener over the next few months.

India is leading the pack on demand.

The country is going to harvest a poor cane crop because of a monsoon that some weather and climate forecasters believed was disrupted by the formation of an El Nino weather anomaly in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

Indian 2009/10 sugar production is seen dropping to 14 million to 15 million tonnes, while consumption stands at over 22 million tonnes.

Some analysts say that initial estimates India would import 2.5 million to 3.0 million tonnes of sugar in the 2009/10 season could probably balloon to 5.0 million tonnes, or more.

There is also an ever lengthening lineup of countries booking or about to place orders for sugar.

They include Pakistan, which is buying 300,000 tonnes in 2009. China’s poor weather may create a shortage of 2.0 million tonnes, Egypt is tendering for 100,000 tonnes and there are shortfalls in Iran and Iraq as well.

The US may soon be buying sugar too as it faces a shortage in the spring of 2010. Analysts now expect the US to order around 800,000 tonnes of sugar by that time.

Large sugar exports are jammed in Brazil’s ports as they toil close to full capacity, which analysts there said could delay future shipments. Brazil is the world’s leading producer and exporter of sugar.

Cocoa slumps, coffee firmer

Cocoa futures were softer as a result of follow-through sales in quiet dealings.

The New York market has stumbled after hitting the psychological $3,000-a-tonne mark earlier in the week.

Steffensen said New York cocoa values could fall ‘back to $2,500 and then it will start all over again.’

New York’s December cocoa contract fell $22 to close at $2,799 per tonne. On Tuesday, it closed at $3,008 in the loftiest finish since August 2008.

London’s December cocoa contract lost 13 pounds to conclude at 1,825 pounds a tonne.

Coffee futures were buoyed by modest short-covering after recent selling deflated the market.

London’s November robusta coffee contract rose $9 to settle at $1,411 a tonne. New York’s December arabica contract added 0.95 cent to end at $1.223 a lb (0.55 kg).

Resources: Reuters

Oil is necessary for cooking. There are so many kinds of oil used in cooking, but do you know which one is best for our health? Which one do you like?which type of oil should you use for cooking? Olive, canola or soybean? Or perhaps corn, safflower or sunflower?Before we conclude the best cooking oil(s), let’s look at the essential – Fats 101.

Saturated Fats:Saturated fats raise total blood cholesterol as well as LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol).
Trans Fats:Trans fats raise LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) and lower HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol).
Monounsaturated Fats:Monounsaturated fats lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) and increase the HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol).
Polyunsaturated Fats:Polyunsaturated fats also lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. Omega 3 fatty acids belong to this group.

When you do need a little oil for cooking, be aware that some oils are more useful than others in light and healthy cooking.Let’s learn something about these oil to help us choosing the good oil.

Soybean Oil
Most cooking oils that are simply labelled “vegetable oil” are made from soybean oil. This oil supplies a fair amount of omega-3 fat, though not as much as canola and walnut oils do. Like canola oil, soybean oil has a bland flavor that works well when you want to avoid adding any interfering flavors to your dish.

Walnut Oil
With a delicate nutty flavor, walnut oil is an excellent choice for baking, cooking, and salad making. Most grocery stores sell as least one brand of walnut oil such as Lorvia California Walnut Oil. Like canola oil, walnut oil contains a substantial amount of omega-3 fats. Most brands of walnut oil have been only minimally processed and can turn rancid quickly, so once opened, they should be refrigerated.

Canola Oil
Low in saturated fats and rich in monounsaturated fats, canola oil also contains alpha-linolenic acid, an essential omega-3 fat that is deficient in most people’s diets.Canola oil has a very mild, bland taste, so it is a good all-purpose oil for cooking and baking when you want no interfering flavors.

Olive oil
A great oil for cooking.  Strong flavored olive oils can be used for frying fish or other strong flavored ingredients.Olive oil has a high smoke point, 410 degrees F,  and doesn’t degrade as quickly as many other oils do with repeated high heating.  Use a variety of healthy vegetable oils when preparing food and incorporate a good extra virgin olive oil when you want its health benefits and wonderful Mediterranean flavor.