August 5, 2010

Heilongjiang's soy sector turns to non-GM variety

Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, the country's biggest soy producing province, is trying to build a non-genetically-modified (non-GM) brand to revive its bean industry, according to the province's Department of Agriculture on Wednesday (Aug 4).

Heilongjiang produces about half of China's soy, aims to build the brand through mergers among the more than 160 soy processing plants, said the department.

So far, non-GM soy oil is only prominent in Northeast China. The rest of the country relies mainly on imports from international conglomerates.

China was a net exporter of soy before 1995 when the US soy entered China due to low prices. Using up about half of the world's soy, China is now a net importer of the crop. And the soy planting acreage has shrunk over the past decade and a half in Heilongjiang.

About 90% of China's soy consumption relies on imports, and about 70% of the country's soy processing plants are controlled by a multinational oligopoly, made up of ADM, Bunge, Cargill and LouisDreyfus.

Heilongjiang soy processing plants cannot compete with plants in the coastal areas using GM soy, which are about 10% cheaper than China-produced beans.