Reading Time: < 1 minute China | Reuters – China, the world’s top pork producer, has culled 200,000 pigs so far following outbreaks of highly contagious African swine fever in the country, a Chinese animal health official said on Friday. While that represents only a tiny portion of the nearly 700 million pigs slaughtered in China each year for sale as pork, restrictions […] Read more
China culls 200,000 pigs due to African swine fever – official
China drops import tariffs on feed ingredients from Asian neighbours
Reading Time: < 1 minute Beijing | Reuters — China on Tuesday said it would remove import tariffs on animal feed ingredients including soybeans from five Asian neighbours, in a sign that Beijing wants to boost foreign supplies of the commodities as a trade dispute with the U.S. escalates. The Ministry of Finance said it would drop tariffs on soybeans, […] Read more
U.S. pork, fruit producers brace for second wave of Chinese tariffs
Reading Time: 3 minutes Beijing/Chicago | Reuters — U.S. producers of pork, already saddled with duties enacted in an earlier round of the escalating trade dispute with China, are bracing for further pain after Beijing hit the products with additional tariffs due to come into effect next month. China implemented a 25 per cent duty on most U.S. pork […] Read more
China signals to state giants: ‘Buy American’ oil and grains
Reading Time: 3 minutes Singapore/Beijing | Reuters –– China will import record volumes of U.S. oil and is likely to ship more U.S. soy after Beijing signalled to state-run refiners and grains purchasers they should buy more to help ease tensions between the two top economies, trade sources said on Wednesday. China pledged at the weekend to increase imports […] Read more
Multi-storey hog hotels elevate Chinese industrial farms to new levels
Reading Time: 4 minutes Yaji Mountain, China | Reuters — On Yaji Mountain in southern China, they are checking in the sows 1,000 head per floor in high-rise “hog hotels.” Privately-owned agricultural company Guangxi Yangxiang Co. Ltd. is running two seven-floor sow breeding operations, and is putting up four more, including one with as many as 13 floors that […] Read more
U.S.-China trade fears halt soybean imports
Reading Time: 3 minutes Singapore/Beijing | Reuters — China’s purchases of U.S. soybeans have come to a grinding halt, trade and industry sources say, as fears of further action by Beijing to curb imports of U.S. crops following last week’s anti-dumping move on sorghum rattles the agriculture industry. Buyers from China, which takes 60 per cent of soybeans traded […] Read more
U.S. pork to feel further chill from China tariff threat
Reading Time: 2 minutes Beijing/Chicago | Reuters — China’s threat of steep tariffs on U.S. pork imports knocked down U.S. hog futures prices and shares of producers on Friday, while increasing fears of hard times for farmers already facing weaker demand from the world’s top buyer of the meat. U.S. farmers have worried for months that rising trade tensions […] Read more
With sorghum warning shot, Beijing targets Trump’s core farm base
Reading Time: 3 minutes Beijing | Reuters — In launching a probe into U.S. sorghum imports, China has fired a warning shot across its top trading partner’s bow that shows farmers in states that voted for U.S. President Donald Trump may be Beijing’s top retaliatory target in the event of a trade war. On Sunday, the Ministry of Commerce […] Read more
China delays deadline for implementing food import rules
Reading Time: 2 minutes Beijing | Reuters — China plans to delay a deadline for implementing new food import regulations by two years until October 2019, a senior EU official said on Tuesday, following a lobbying effort by Europe and the U.S. amid concerns about disruption to trade. The extension comes just days before the new rules, which are […] Read more
China promotes livestock farming to digest corn stocks
Reading Time: 2 minutes Beijing/China – China wants to turn its grain basket in the northeast into a national meat and dairy production base, said the agriculture ministry on Thursday, as part of a broader plan to create stronger demand for the region’s main crops. Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia account for around a quarter of China’s total […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
