China Agriculture View

BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) — The quality of China’s agricultural produce including vegetables, domestic animals and aquatics was improved in 2009, the Ministry of Agriculture said Monday.

The ministry released an annual report based on monitoring results of agricultural products, saying 96.4 percent of vegetables had met safety standards in 2009, up 0.1 percentage points year on year.

The rate was 99.5 percent for domestic animals, up 0.8 percentage points, and 97.2 percent for aquatic products, up 1.5 percentage points.

The monitoring of fruits, mushrooms and tea, for the first time in 2009, found 98 percent, 95.2 percent, and 94.8 percent of products in the three categories met standards.

In 2009, the inspections became more detailed, covered more categories, and were carried out in 259 large and medium-sized cities, compared with only 36 major cities previously, the ministry said.

The ministry said it would step up the control over the use of prohibited pesticides and veterinary drugs in 2010 in order to further improve the quality and safety of agricultural produce.

BERLIN, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) — As climate change poses a great challgenge to China’s agricultural sector, the government and farmers should tackle it in a scientific and systematic way, Chinese Vice Minister of Agriculture Niu Dun said in an interview with Xinhua.

Climate change has posed great threats to the traditional farming sector, and extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods, hailstorm, tropical storms, have ruined harvests far more often than before, Niu said.

He was in Berlin to attend the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture, held during the 75th International Green Week in Berlin, the world’s largest agricultural and food fair.

“The destructive power of climate change has reminded us of theneed to view the issue with a multi-dimensional perspective,” he said. “We should tackle the challenges by renewing the agricultural system and continuously developing the country’s economy.”

The Chinese government would help farmers, herdsmen and fishermen create a sustainable mode of production by applying new technologies with lower costs and lower emissions, Niu said.

“The government will intensify investment of agricultural infrastructure and projects and impart more scientific knowledge and climate-friendly concepts to farmers,” the vice-minister said.

“We want to build a comprehensive service system in the rural areas to offer multi-facet assistance to agriculture, such as providing peasants with quality seeds, machinery and advanced technologies,” he said.

All these could help cut down losses caused by climate change and improve rural living standards, Niu said.

Despite unfavorable weather conditions and the international financial crisis, China’s total grain yield was expected to hit a record high of 530.8 billion kg in 2009, the sixth consecutive year of growth. The per capita annual net income of Chinese farmers has exceeded 5,000 yuan (735 U.S. dollars), up more than 6percent from 2008, according to the latest data.

At the forum, Niu rejected accusations that China blocked a deal last month at the Copenhagen climate change conference. “China has set the new target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions per unit of the GDP by 40-45 percent by 2020 from the 2005 level,”he told 50-plus foreign agriculture ministers.

“Above all, it was not conditional or linked with commitments by any other countries,” he said.

Under the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities in addressing climate change, “China has demonstrated its highly responsible attitude towards the international community and future generations,” the Chinese official said.

Some 1,600 exhibitors from 56 countries were taking part in the10-day annual fair, showcasing their best farm produce, livestock,farm machines, garden tools and newly-developed technologies.

Niu told Xinhua that attending the forum offered a chance to “broaden our vision about new trends of modern agriculture.”

China’s grain enterprises purchased 287.6 million tons of grain from peasants in 2009, effectively stabilizing domestic grain prices and protecting farmers’ interests, said head of the State Administration of Grain Nie Zhenbang Monday.

China had raised minimum purchase prices for wheat and rice again in 2009, by 13 to 17 percent, to add income for farmers, said Nie at a national meeting in Beijing.

The measure of minimum purchase prices increased peasants’ income by about 40 billion yuan ($5.86 billion) last year, he said.

Administration figures showed State-run grain enterprises bought 163.2 million tons of grain last year.

The Administration has been promoting reforms among State-run grain enterprises and reported 18,163 State-run grain enterprises by the end of 2009, down 65 percent from 1998.

BEIJING, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) — China’s grain yield this year is expected to hit a record high of 530.8 billion kilograms, which would represent the sixth consecutive year of output growth, said a statement released on Monday after the conclusion of the Central Conference on Rural Work.

China Organic Agriculture, a company headquartered in the Liaoning province in China engaged in the trading and distribution of agricultural products, has entered into an agreement to acquire 60% of the stock of Changbai Eco-Beverage for RMB70m or $10.25m. The closing is expected in March of 2010.

Changbai is a producer and distributor of blueberry product, located in Jilin Province of China. Changbai produces around one hundred blueberry related products, including soft drinks, health care products and honey mixed products.

Changbai currently distributes its products within three provinces in northeastern China and plans to expand into other regions over the next two years. The company said that upon completion of this acquisition, it will utilize China Organic Agriculture’s countrywide sales network, and is expected that as a result of this acquisition, it will be able to expand its market more rapidly than originally anticipated, thus increasing both its brand awareness across China and its revenues.

Li Jinsong, CEO of China Organic Agriculture’s, said: “We believe that the opportunities in the blueberry industry are enormous as blueberry based products will become increasingly in demand in China with the growing interest in healthy food alternatives.

“Now that we have an agreement, assuming the satisfactory conclusion of our financial and legal due diligence, and receipt of all necessary government approvals, China Organic Agriculture’s distribution network and broader-based relationships will enable Changbai to expand its business and more quickly penetrate this growing market with this promising beverage and product group.”

Over the last ten years, the Chinese swine industry has been rapidly expanding, with the support of local and international investors who have recognized the profit potential. The U.S. Grains Council has been working closely with local producers through the industry expansion, aiding in not only feed ration advising, but also in helping produce a model for modern facilities and management.

USGC Consultant Dr. Steve Pohl and Jason Yan, USGC technical program director in China, met with representatives of Besun Group, a Chinese swine producer, two years ago as they were in search of guidance in building a 20,000-sow operation. With Dr. Pohl and the Council’s expertise, the Besun Group was able to follow an outline for an efficient facility. The Council has continued its support of the operation, offering guidance with further details in managing the facility and employees.

“Besun Group is now finishing four of its seven planned 3,000-sow farms in the Shaanxi Province. The building style and pig flow model has become a model for other companies planning expansion in China,” said USGC Senior Director in China Cary Sifferath, noting more than 20 large swine operations have visited Besun Group for firsthand looks at their facilities.

With the expansion of the industry comes a need for an increased amount of feed ingredients. This week, Council Consultant Dr. Ken Stalder traveled to China to meet with swine producers, offering his expertise in swine management and nutrition. Dr. Stalder focused on genetic improvement, selection methods and the economic benefits to such techniques.

The Chinese government pledged Monday to push forward the transformation of its economic development pattern next year while maintaining stable and comparatively fast economic growth.

Participants at the three-day annual Central Economic Work Conference agreed that the global financial crisis highlighted the urgency to transform China’s economic development pattern.

They agreed that the government should coordinate efforts to maintain stable and comparatively fast economic growth and speed up the transformation of the economic development mode.

The Central Economic Work Conference, held once a year to set the tone for next year’s economic development, comprises policy-making officials from central and provincial-level governments, including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.

The conference outlined six major tasks for next year’s economic work: to improve macro-regulation to ensure stable and relatively fast economic growth, advance economic structure adjustment to lift quality and efficiency of economic growth, boost rural development momentum, deepen reform and opening up to enhance momentum and vigor of economic growth, promote stable export increase, improve people’s livelihood and maintain social stability.

The government would continue efforts to boost domestic demand, especially expand people’s consumer demand, and make consumption contribute more to boost economic growth, according to a statement released after the conference.

The government would also seek to push recovery of exports and promote balanced international trade, it said.

More efforts would be spent to deepen economic system reform and enhance the momentum and vigor of economic growth.

The government vowed to balance the tasks of ensuring a stable and relatively fast economic growth, adjusting economic structure and managing inflation expectations next year.

This was the second time the government mentioned about managing inflationary prospects in a national event after a State Council meeting in October picked the issue as one of the key points in macro-regulation for the rest of 2009.

The country would maintain the continuity and stability of macro-economic policy and continue implementing the proactive fiscal policy and moderately easy monetary policy.

It has been over a week since China announced its decision to lift the country’s ban on U.S. pork, but negotiations continue over the terms for U.S. pork exports to resume, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture official.
 
“Negotiations are ongoing,” said the USDA official, who asked not to be named. “They are looking at the lingering issues in order to resume pork trade.”

The fact that U.S. pork exports haven’t begun flowing again to China has some industry representatives concerned, especially because the severity of those”lingering issues” and the degree to which U.S. and Chinese negotiators are split over them are unknown.China banned U.S. pork earlier this year after a human outbreak of swine flu, or H1N1 influenza.

China was a major importer of U.S. pork in 2008, according to USDA data that showed $580 million of U.S. pork exports to the country.

 U.S. and international scientists have said studies show that the H1N1 virus cannot be transmitted to humans by eating pork.

 Joe Schuele, director of communications for the U.S. Meat Export Federation, said the group advised its members that China’s original communications that it was lifting its ban might be “premature.”

U.S. negotiators, Schuele said, are taking care “to make sure that we don’t have a lot of unworkable conditions that are going to cause problems for our
exporters.”

The U.S.-based National Pork Producers Council is “hopeful” that U.S. exporters will be able to begin shipping pork to China again soon, spokesman David Warner said, but acknowledged that it is primarily up to China now to follow through with its promise.

  “We support the U.S. government’s efforts to get the Chinese to open their market to U.S. pork, and we’re frustrated that this hasn’t gotten done yet,”Warner said.

Source: dailypost