August 15, 2007

 

US now accounts for more than half of China's chicken and soy imports

 

 

The US now accounts for more than half the value of China's chicken and soy imports, according to a August 10 USDA report which detailed the trade in agricultural, fishery, and forestry  products between the two countries for the first half of 2007.

 

The US is China's largest supplier of agricultural, fishery and forestry products and the first half of the year saw a 10 percent increase over the same period last year.

 

China's agricultural, forestry and fishery imports amounted to US$23.1 billion for the first half of the year, with close to one-fifth, or US$4.9 billion, coming from the US

 

Among China's leading imports from the US were soy, cotton, hides and skins, and frozen chicken cuts and edible offal.

 

While China's overall soy imports rose 22 percent, the country's soy imports from the US was up 51 percent.

 

The value of US soy, at US$2.5 billion was also more than half of the overall value of soy China imported (US$4.5 billion).

 

Soy was also the top agricultural export from the US to China, accounting for more than half of all such products China imported from the US.

 

Also, more than half the value of the chicken and edible chicken offal that China imports from the world comes from the US. US chicken exports to China reached US$227 million during the period (out of US$390 million China imported from the world), an increase of nearly 60 percent, reflecting the popularity of poultry as the country grappled with a pork shortage. China's overall chicken imports rose 84 percent during the period.

 

Based on the first six months of 2005 and 2007, the value of China's imports of agricultural, fishery, and forestry  products from the US had risen 23 percent in the past two years, rising from US$4.0 billion in 2005 to US$4.9 billion by 2007.

 

This surpasses imports from both Russia (US$1.9 billion) and Brazil ( US$1.8 billion) combined. However, Russia and Brazil, China's second and third largest agricultural products supplier respectively, saw greater increases in exports to China. Imports of agricultural products from Russia rose 31 percent while that from Brazil rose 62 percent.

 

Qingdao, Nanjing and Shanghai remain the top three port-of-entry for US agricultural, fishery, and forestry products.

 

China's overall imports of swine offal also doubled from last year to reach US$132 million this year, reflecting the serious pork shortage in the country. Also reflecting the shift of consumers' appetite from pork to chicken, imports of chicken cuts saw a strong increase of 84 percent to US$390 million, according to China Customs Data.

 

Even as China's feed demand dropped domestically, its import of animal feed from the US ( excluding dog and cat food) rose 66 percent from last year to US$19 million. However, this was still below the US$21 million seen in 2005.

 

In the same time period, China's agricultural, fishery, and forestry exports totaled US$18.7 billion.

 

Exports of such  products to Japan, China's top customer, fell 4.7 percent to US$4.3 billion last year, partly due to stricter checks on Chinese seafood.

 

China's agricultural exports to its second largest customer, the US, suffered an even steeper drop of 11.7 percent to US$2.5 billion, partially attributable to US tariffs.

 

However, exports to South Korea, the country's third largest agricultural customer, rose 24 percent to US$1.8 billion.

 

Other major customers of Chinese agricultural exports include Russia, Germany and Malaysia.

 

Fish was China's top agricultural, fishery, and forestry export. Despite stricter checks on seafood, China's seafood exports rose 42 percent to US$8.9 billion during the period. Other top products include corn and shrimp. Corn exports doubled during the period to US$605 million, bouncing back to 2005 levels of US$625 million, this was despite heightening concerns over China's corn inventory as more supplies were diverted to the ethanol industry earlier this year.

 

Shrimp exports however, grew relatively slower at a rate of 26 percent to US$413 million, partly due to higher tariffs in some nations such as the US, prompting exports to the nation to fall 24 percent to US$78 million. 

 

However, seafood more than doubled to US$194 million, a far cry from just US$25 million in 2005. It is not clear if stricter requirements the US implemented on Chinese seafood recently would dampen imports.

 

For the full report, please click here.