March 20, 2009

Despite long being a staunch opponent of foreign investment in China's soy industry, Jiusan Group, China's largest domestically-owned soy crusher, indicated it would be open to foreign investments but with conditions.

Internationalisation would be the company's development path and it is likely that Jiusan would cooperate with foreign investors, said Tian Renli, Jiusan's president.

However, Tian denied that his firm had been negotiating a possible acqusition by Shanghai-based Yihai Kerry Investment Group (YHK Group), a company owned by Singapore-based Wilmar Group.

China's soy crushing businesses were crumbling under double pressure from market fluctuations and government intervention in the trade.

Jiusan has already halted production in five crushing factories in Heilongjiang province, with only three others in the coastal areas still operating.

Tian said any cooperation must be based on the Chinese party holding a controlling stake and the firm would not accept any unfair additional terms imposed by foreign enterprises.

He was referring to cases where foreign firms which had acquired a Chinese soy crusher would then have it adopt preferential procurement of imported GM soy. He said these kinds of policies were seriously affecting the livelihood of domestic, non-GM soy producers.

Tian emphasised that he would rather personally set up a global sales and purchasing network and establish the company's internationalisation process independently if foreign companies do not cooperate with him.