February 5, 2021

China buys 130,000 tonnes of US wheat, USDA data shows

The latest data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) on January 21 showed that China bought 130,000 tonnes of wheat from the United States in the week ended January 21, doubling the former's purchases made from the previous week.

The latest acquisition showed that China's interest in US wheat has not waned and imports are expected to continue in the coming weeks.

According to the USDA export sales data released on January 28, China's total commitments for US wheat have reached 2.6 million tonnes in the 2020-2021 marketing season that runs from June 2020 through May 2021.

USDA data also revealed that China has already imported a total of 1.75 million tonnes, leaving roughly 831,000 tonnes of wheat in China's 2020-2021 outstanding sales commitments.

China is now the third largest buyer of US wheat in 2020-2021, surpassing Japan which traditionally has been one of the biggest buyers of US wheat.

Beginning in the early part of 2020, China had been on a buying spree of grains to build its domestic reserves due to high demand resulting from the remarkable recovery of its pig population from African swine fever.

Due to soaring, domestic corn prices, Chinese farmers were pushed to replace corn with wheat in pig rations while China has released its stocks through auctions to meet demand for wheat.

"Some feed mills have indicated they are substituting as much as 15% to 30% wheat for corn. While there was an expectation the substitution would help push down corn prices, that has yet to happen," a USDA's attaché in China said in a separate release.

USDA expects China to import nine million tonnes in 2020-2021, an increase of 67.3% from the previous year.

 - Hellenic Shipping News