Dim Sums: Agricultural Markets in China

On December 29, the Ministry of Agriculture held its meeting to discuss work on livestock and animal disease control in 2010 . The new agriculture minister, Han Changfu, and the vice minister, Gao Jibing, gave speeches. The meeting conveys a sense of urgency about problems facing the industry. China's livestock industry is growing rapidly and experiencing rapid structural transformation. It faces the challenges of supplying the Chinese population's demand for animal products, avoiding food safety scandals like the melamine disaster, and preventing dangerous disease epidemics. Vice Minister Gao depicts the situation as grim and warns specifically of avian influenza, hoof and mouth disease and the threat of cross-border epidemics. The meeting called for fully implementing "modern" livestock industry, and laid out 9 points for work in 2010 that reflect concerns about instability in livestock markets, problems with out-of-control rogue vendors, and animal disease. The sol...

The Chinese pork sector is subject to cyclical ups and downs in prices. In Sichuan Province, 135 tons of live hogs went unsold at an auction , raising fears that the industry may be facing a downturn. The provincial government got concerned and sent a group of officials out to investigate the situation. Their preliminary conclusions are that there is not currently a serious problem with unsold pigs because it's the peak season for pork consumption (leading up to the Chinese new year). However, farmers are having trouble selling feeder pigs. Corn prices are up, cutting into profits. Pork demand will fall off in the spring months, so farmers are not eager to buy a lot of replacement pigs. This year has been a mild roller coaster for Chinese pig farmers. The industry suffered losses in April-June due to a cyclical surge in supply and fears of catching H1N1 from pork. The industry recovered beginning in July. Now profits are still positive but shrinking due to a rising corn price. Farm...

The Agricultural Development Bank of China [the bank in charge of financing grain, cotton, and edible oil policies] issued a “Notice on Supply and Management of Loan Funds for Completion of Northeastern Fall Grain Procurement” to implement the central government's minimum price procurement policy. Branches of the bank are to supply funds to designated grain enterprises and Sinograin Co. from now until the end of April 2010 to purchase japonica rice, corn, and soybeans at minimum prices set by the government and to rotate grain reserves. Loans must be issued during the time when grain is purchased and according to the actual amount of grain purchased. Purchasers cannot refuse or limit grain purchases [from farmers]. The notice also directs banks to provide loans to fund subsidies and working capital for soybean crushing enterprises for purchase of soybeans.

Central government leaders announced that they will put priority on addressing serious pollution in "problem villages" that have serious environmental hazards that affect villagers health and impede rural sustainable development. The environmental protection minister made the announcement at a national rural environmental protection and ecological improvement work meeting. The "using awards to promote governance" policy will be used to give financial awards to encourage the masses to address environmental hazards in rural areas, both developed and less-developed areas where rural people face health hazards. The Environment Minister said the central government will allocate 1.5 billion yuan to support 2160 rural environamental rectification and ecological improvement projects, combined with 2.5 billion yuan of local government funds. This is expected to benefit 13 million rural people and improve the appearance of most villages.

How 'ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm once they've seen Dongguan? Give them some subsidies and training! In 2007-08, there were many reports of farmers abandoning small-scale livestock production. Now they are returning to the industry with a little prodding from Jiangxi Province officials. Early this year, the big concern was about rural migrants who lost their jobs in closed export factories. China's economic planners in Jiangxi apparently decided to put migrants to work in raising livestock. According to Farmers Daily (Dec. 17), Jiangxi provincial officials claim that 90,000 returned migrants are now raising livestock. Of those, 42,000 set up their own farms, and 48,000 are employed on large-scale farms, in companies, and "production bases." They are reportedly tending 26 million animals and poultry. Officials claim that these farmers' monthly income is 511 yuan higher than it was working as migrants last year. Provincial officials plugged migrants i...

On November 30th a 2-day meeting was held in Guiyang , capital of Guizhou Province, to mark the 10th anniversary of the “Develop the West” policy and discuss improvements in the policy. Zhang Ping, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, Lin Shusen, the governor of Guizhou, and Du Ying, vice-chair of NDRC were the featured participants. The policy is basically a massive investment project that pours money into China’s 12 western provinces to build infrastructure, industrial parks, and factories. This has an impact on the world agri-food system. China’s dominance of the world apple juice market, tomato paste exports, a big chunk of China’s cotton production, and rising trade with central and southeast Asia are linked to this program. The meeting cited “great achievements” of the program. The growth rate of the western region exceeded the national rate in the third quarter of this year. The western region is in a “new stage of development,” and the program “faces many...

All sorts of religious movements have flourished in rural China during the last few decades. We can get some insights about the Communist Party’s approach to religion from a document apparently prepared to instruct village party leaders on how to stamp out religious movements in their communities. The article discusses Xinzhai Village in Pingtang County, an “autonomous” region populated by the Miao minority (known as Hmong in southeast Asia) in Guizhou Province, south of Guiyang. The Miao have their own traditional religions, but Christian belief has spread widely among the Miao in China in recent years (as it did among Hmong in Laos in earlier decades). The article reports that a Christian Church has been active in Xiuzhai Village since 1993. There were 23 people (in a village of over 2000 people) who joined the church activities--16 men and 7 women, ranging in age from 34 to 64. They not only believed themselves, but also brought family members to religious activities. After joining ...

A news report about a 5-class system in a village in Inner Mongolia crystallized some of the fundamental strains placed on China’s anachronistic rural land system. According to the December 1 news report, Yinliuyao village, on the outskirts of Baotou City, has divided families in the village into five classes according to the year the family moved to the village. The first class includes those who settled in the village before 1963. The second class is those who settled there during 1963-75, third class 1976-85, fourth class 1986-96, and fifth class includes those who arrived after 1996. The classes reflect waves of migration to the village. Some earlier migrants were resettled when their villages were flooded by new reservoirs. More recent arrivals came seeking urban jobs. Apparently, new arrivals were allocated shares of the village collective’s land, so they are entitled to compensation when village land is sold off. The village, being on the outskirts of the city, has had its land...