June 20, 2011

The China National Grain and Oil Information Centre (CNGOIC) on Friday (Jun 17) kept its monthly estimate on soy output and imports unchanged from a month earlier in the current and next crop years.

The state-supported think-tank predicted that the country would produce 15.2 million tonnes of soy in crop year of 2010-11 that began from October, up 1.5% over the preceding crop year.

Last month, the CNGOIC lowered its 2010-11 soy import forecast to 53 million tonnes, down one million tonnes from its April forecast, a move that acknowledged global assessments of likely lower Chinese soy imports this year.

While the CNGOIC now estimates a lower soy import forecast for the crop year, the likely full volume for China in 2010-11 is still a significant increase from 50.3 million tonnes seen in the preceding crop year.

The Ministry of Commerce forecast Thursday that China would import 5.57 million tonnes of soy in June, a 22% rise on May if the estimate is accurate.