November 16, 2010

China not ready for Argentine corn imports

China, the world's second-largest corn consumer, will not import Argentine corn soon as it will take more than two years to lay the groundwork, grain traders and analysts said Monday (Nov 15).

Argentina's Agriculture Minister Julian Dominguez said on Friday that the world's second-largest corn supplier was in talks to export corn to China.

China has signed phytosanitary agreements with only three countries - the US, Thailand and Peru - for imports of corn for industrial purposes.

Such a protocol would take more than two years, said a Chinese grain official. China's quarantine bureau is in charge of signing such agreements.

Imports of genetically modified (GMO) corn would take even longer as China's Agriculture Ministry would have to approve the safety of any GMO imports not among the 11 GMO varieties approved by China, said another grain analyst.

Following a drought-hit harvest last year, China imported 1.226 million tonnes of corn in the first nine months of this year, the largest volume in 15 years, mainly from the US.

Tight state stocks coupled with rising demand from livestock and corn processors have prompted expectations that the country may need to import as much as five million tonnes next year.

China's quarantine authority recently rejected a US corn cargo containing an unapproved GMO variety, the first-ever rejection by China.

The cargo, which was unloaded into silos at Chiwan port in the southern province of Guangdong, would be shipped back to the US or resold to Japan before end of the month, according to sources.

Meanwhile, China exported 112,235 tonnes of corn in January to October, an increase of 26.2% from the same period last year, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC). The country's corn exports arrived at 4,830 tonnes in October.