January 19, 2004

Taiwan Buys 22,000 MT Chinese Corn

Taiwan has bought a second cargo of Chinese corn for arrival before the end of January, an official from China National Cereals, Oils & Foodstuffs Import & Export Corp. said Friday.

Cofco sold the cargo, around 22,000 metric tons, to Taiwan's Great Wall Enterprise Co., he said.

The cargo will be loaded at Dalian port in northern China.

Sources said the price was US$160.50 a ton, cost and freight Taiwan, but the Cofco official wouldn't confirm it.

The buyer couldn't be reached immediately.

This is the second cargo of Chinese corn that Taiwan has purchased since late last year. In November 2003, Taiwan temporarily lifted a 50-year ban on Chinese corn and soymeal imports up to Jan. 31, 2004. The livestock industry had appealed to the government to lift the ban after domestic prices in Taiwan rose sharply on strong corn import prices and high freight costs from the U.S.

Taiwan's R.O.C. Federation of Swine Cooperatives bought the first cargo of 20,000 tons of Chinese corn in December at US$155/ton, C&F.

Taiwan is a staunch buyer of U.S. grains and imports around 5.2 million tons of U.S. corn a year, mostly for feed purposes.

Taiwan traditionally doesn't buy grains from China due to years of political animosity with the mainland.

The last time Taiwan lifted the ban on Chinese corn was in late October 2002, when U.S. corn shipments were temporarily disrupted because of a labor lockout at U.S. West Coast ports. The ban was reinstated at the start of 2003. In that period, Taiwan imported around 70,000 tons of Chinese corn.