January 8, 2020

Chinese province raises soybean production in 2019

Northeast China's province of Heilongjiang significantly increased soybean production in 2019, contributing to 77.3% of the country's overall newly-added soybean growing areas in the year, Xinhua reported.

According to an ongoing work conference on Heilongjiang's agricultural and rural affairs, the soybean planting area in the province grew by 712,000 hectares to reach 4.28 million hectares in 2019, making up nearly 46% of the total soybean planting area in the country.

Heilongjiang is China's biggest producer of non-genetically modified soybeans, where farmers have been encouraged to expand soybean planting to increase supply. Soybeans are crushed for cooking oil in China and also used as animal feed.

Li Fuqiang, chair of a soybean planting cooperative in the city of Bei'an, Heilongjiang, said farmers' enthusiasm for planting soybeans has resumed over the past two years, along with a higher farming efficiency.

The cooperative added 3,333 hectares of soybean plantations in 2019, which has a yield of 2.25 tonnes per hectare.