November 15, 2011

Northeast China's Heilongjiang province imported a total of 1.337 million tonnes of soy in the first three quarters of 2011, a sharp decline of 35.5% on-year, statistics from the Customs showed.

Analysts said there were mainly two reasons behind the import slump. First, domestic grain output surge has pressed down import demand. Second, downstream profits have shrunk due to mounting soy prices, which led to a quick decline in grain imports.

The Chinese Customs statistics also showed that China imported 3.81 million tonnes of soy in October, the lowest level since May 2011.

Heilongjiang is the country's biggest soy production base, yielding about 40% of the nation's total soy output. It produced 5.85 million tonnes of soy in 2010, down 70,000 tonnes or 1.2% from the previous year.