September 3, 2009

Chinese government sold 10,006 tonnes of soy from its reserves Wednesday (September 2), or 2.1 percent of the volume offered.

All the sales were in Heilongjiang province, the biggest soy producer, at an average price at RMB3,760 (US$550.43)/tonne.

Cash soy prices in the province ranged from RMB3,400 to RMB4,000/tonne in recent days.

Traders stayed on sidelines amid high auction prices, while waiting for expected government subsidies, said Gao Yunyue, an analyst with Zhejiang Dadi Futures Brokerage Co.

There have been expectations in the market that the government is working on a program to provide a subsidy of RMB200/tonne to soy crushers in the major northeastern producing areas, for sales from reserves of 2 million tonnes.

US$1 = RMB6.83 (Sept 3)