November 4, 2004

 

 

China to Resolve Soybean Trade Interruptions with Brazil, Argentina
 

China will hold talks with Brazil and Argentina in a move to work out interruptions to soybean trade worth about $3 billion a year.

 

Li Changjiang, head of the quarantine inspection bureau, will travel to Brazil and Argentina this month -- the No. 2 and No. 3 suppliers of soy to China respectively. The visit, part of President Hu Jintao's 11-day trip to Latin America, aims to stop rejections of soybeans at Chinese ports, said Yang Ping, a bureau official.

 

Shipments of more than 300,000 tons of soybeans from South America have been blocked by China's quality inspection bureau this year on grounds of contamination. This had caused imports to plunge by 52 percent on year in September and by 21 percent in the first nine months this year.

 

"Both sides will have a chance to talk about any outstanding differences about quality inspection procedures,'' said Yang, manager of the bureau's international affairs office.

 

Brazil's farmers last year planted enough new soybeans to cover an area the size of New Jersey to meet orders from China.

 

China's imports of Brazilian soybeans declined 23 percent in the first nine months to 4.5 million tons, while Argentine soybean imports fell 44 percent to 3.1 million tons. Imports of soybeans from the US, China's biggest supplier of the crop, were unchanged at 6.3 million tons in the same period.

 

Soyoil

 

Li and his counterparts also aim to quell concern that new quality standards for edible oil imports will halt nearly $2 billion worth of soybean oil imports from Brazil and Argentina, who are China's two main suppliers of the product.

 

On Oct. 1, China lowered the maximum solvent residue content in imports of the edible oil by about half, to a purity level that few producers in neither of the two countries can meet.

 

"There are conversations ongoing between both sides,'' which have averted a halt in shipments, according to Marriano Ripari, agricultural counselor at Argentina's embassy in Beijing.

 

Li will meet Brazilian Agriculture Minister Roberto Rodrigues during Hu's trip to South America's largest country, said James Liu, an official in the commercial section of Brazil's embassy in Beijing.