December 28, 2006

Chinese mainland to export corn to Taiwan to handle feed shortage

The Chinese mainland on Wednesday, Dec 27 pledged to export corn to Taiwan to relieve the feed shortage being experienced by the island's pig farmers.

Taiwanese pig farmers have been going through a tough time trying to secure feed for the pig.

Some organisations in Taiwan now want to import feed from the mainland and have called on Taiwan authorities to loosen their import restrictions, said Li Weiyi, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council

Authorities in Taiwan have reportedly announced a plan to allow the import of mainland corn in phases from December 2006 to February 2007.

Negotiations are on between pig farming associations of Taiwan and mainland organisations.

Taiwan needs 4 to 5 million tonnes of corn feed every year. The same was earlier imported from the US. The supply has been drying up as more corn is being pumped to biofuel factories.