November 18, 2003

China Seen Planting 10% More Rapeseed This Winter

Chinese farmers are planting more rapeseed this winter, with sentiment buoyed by higher prices so far in the year, local traders said Tuesday.

By mid-November, prices offered by millers for locally produced rapeseed had reached 3,000 yuan ($1=CNY8.2646) a metric ton, around CNY400 higher than the prices in January.

Chinese farmers plant rapeseed in November and December and the crop is harvested in April and May.

In Hubei province, southern China, the top rapeseed planting province in China, sowing this winter is expected to be around 10% higher than in the previous year, a local trader said. In Anhui and Jiangsu provinces in eastern China, acreage is expected to be 15%-20% higher.

In a survey conducted by the China National Bureau of Statistics in early October, nearly 50,000 farmers said they would increase plantings by 5.5%, but most traders now feel that this figure could go much higher.

"The sowing area showed an increase of 5% to 20% in nearly all of the rapeseed planting regions. It could be 10% higher (on average) than acreage last year," said an official from a local grain company in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province.

China harvested 11.50 million tons of rapeseed in the June 2003-May 2004 marketing year, compared with 10.55 million tons in the previous marketing year, according to official figures from government.

The Chinese rapeseed crop is planted in November and December and harvested in April and May.