September 17, 2009

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) will continue to monitor the impact of soy imports on the domestic related industries, said Yao Jian, spokesman of MOC, at a regular press conference, on Tuesday (Sep 15).

Yao added that the ministry will start the relevant work for the soy imports issue within the scope of the ministry's functions but the final judgment has to be made according to the technical standard.

According to an analysis by the General Administration of Customs, the sharp increase in China's soy imports was mainly attributed to the far higher price of the domestic soy than that on the international market.

Currently, soy price in China fetches about RMB3,600 (US$527) per tonne while the price of imported soy is less than RMB3,000 per tonne.

Being the largest soy importer in the world, China has seen an increase of 28 percent in its soy imports for this year.

Last year, US soy made up 40 percent of the country's total soy imports. In the first seven months of 2009, its imports from the US reached 1.19 million tonnes, an on-year increase of 72 percent.

Meanwhile, China imported 3.13 million tonnes of soy in August, the lowest monthly figure in the past six months and fell 29 percent from July.

US$1 = RMB6.831 (Sep 17)