August 19, 2009

China's imported soy maintains price advantage in July

With the decline of soy prices on the international market, prices for imported soy continued to rank below that of Chinese soy in July, according to a market survey by China's Ministry of Agriculture.

The price of imported soy in east China's Shandong Province reached RMB3,708 (US$542.5) per tonne (after tax) in July, slightly lower than the local price of RMB3,725 per tonne.

Meanwhile, in northeastern China, the country's largest soy production base, the purchase price of soy reached RMB3,557 per tonne last month, about the same level in June but fell 32.1 percent year-on-year.

Customs data showed that China imported 4.71 million tonnes of soy in June, up 33.7 percent over May and 31.5 percent higher compared to the same period last year. In the first half of the year, China imported a total of 22.09 million tonnes of soy, with 54.4 percent from the US, 33 percent from Brazil and 11.2 percent from Argentina.

US$1=RMB6.840 (Aug 19)