By Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, Nov. 4 – China’s strong demand for corn and other feed ingredients is starting to fade.
Its corn imports are expected to fall in 2016, said Bell Chen, senior vice president of Asian markets with RJ O’Brien and Associates.
He was speaking at the Cereals North America conference here.
Chen highlighted macroeconomic indicators at play in China, all of which paint a picture of an economy that is slowing its pace of growth.
Looking specifically at corn, Chen said that while the country’s own seedings will likely fall in 2016, imports will also be down.
He said the government had a grain import quota of 7.2 million tonnes, but would likely bring in only 40 percent of that – or 2.9 million tonnes.
That was because China has very large corn stocks and the number of Chinese livestock on feed is down.
He added that imports of feed grains and products will be tightly controlled by non-quota, non-tariff measures, he added.
He estimated China’s corn imports in 2015 will be 5.5 million tonnes, mostly from Ukraine and Argentina.
That is well off the highs seen only a few years earlier.
However, imports of food grains – such as rice and wheat – will rise due to quality needs, said Chen.
That is well off the highs seen only a few years earlier.
However, imports of food grains – such as rice and wheat – will rise due to quality needs, said Chen.
