China’s US soybean and pork imports down 55.3 per cent due to trade war, African swine fever
- Ministry of Agriculture shows that China’s imports of US soybeans shrank by 70.6 per cent year-on-year to 4.31 million tonnes in the first five months of 2019
- Reduced orders of agricultural products from the United States could be on the agenda this week at the G20 summit in Japan
China’s purchase of agricultural products from the United States plunged this year, with soybean and pork imports down 55.3 per cent in the first five months of 2019, as the likes of Brazil, Southeast Asia, the European Union, Australia and Canada continued to reap the benefits from the trade war and African swine fever outbreak, according to China’s Ministry of Agriculture.
Beijing are believed to be using its reduced orders of US agricultural products as a bargaining chip to reach a deal with the US. The issue could be included in discussions this week in Japan between Chinese and American negotiators ahead of the expected meeting between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump at the weekend.
Data from China’s Ministry of Agriculture, released on Tuesday, showed that China’s imports of US soybeans shrank by 70.6 per cent year-on-year to 4.31 million tonnes in the first five months of 2019, with China’s overall imports of soybeans dropping by 12.2 per cent.
Soybeans are the leading US export to China, with US soybean exports to China accounting for about 60 per cent of its soybean output in 2018 and 20 per cent of its total soybean exports for the year up to the end of May, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
The department earlier said that soybean exports to China were at 6.9 million tonnes for the year up to the end of May, over 20 million tonnes lower compared to the same period last year.
With imports of soybean from the US caught in the trade war, China is turning to Brazil, its largest soybean supplier, to make up for the amount it has lost from the US. About 66.1 million tonnes of China’s imported soybeans came from Brazil last year, accounting for 75 per cent of the country’s total imports, 30 per cent higher than the previous year.
China’s May soybean imports from Brazil, however, also fell 31 per cent from the same month last year, customs data showed on Tuesday, with buyers curbing bookings of the animal feed ingredient as African swine fever has reduced the nation’s pig herds.
China bought 6.3 million tonnes of soybeans from Brazil in May, down from 9.124 million tonnes the previous year, data from the General Administration of Customs showed. That comes as China has reported 137 outbreaks of swine fever in almost all of its provinces and regions since it was first detected in the country in early August 2018.
Overall, China’s pork imports surged nearly 63 per cent in May from the same month last year, Chinese customs data showed on Sunday, as the world’s top consumer of the meat stocked up on supplies ahead of an anticipated shortage due to the outbreak of African swine fever.
In May, in a response to the tariffs on US$200 million worth of Chinese goods climbing from 10 per cent to 25 per cent following the collapse of the 11th round of trade talks between Beijing and Washington, China imposed supplementary tariffs on US$60 billion worth of US goods.
With over 300 US agricultural products valued at around US$3 billion affected by the latest tariffs, the total amount of US agricultural products affected since April 2018 rose to over 1,000 products valued at about around US$22.6 billion.
Additional reporting by Reuters
