Dim Sums: Agricultural Markets in China

Chinese leaders are worried that flooded fields and soaring farm input prices are slowing the corn harvest and planting of the winter wheat crop.  Sustained heavy rains and other anomalous weather events--including giant hail, tornadoes, and snow in August--have occurred all over northern China since the summer months. Many fields remain waterlogged or flooded, creating a double threat of suppressing the fall harvest of corn and delaying or preventing the planting of winter wheat.  Flooded corn field in Shandong Province, September 26, 2021. Source: iqilu Shandong news service . The standing committee of China's State Council held an October 20 meeting  that ordered officials to take measures to ensure that fall grain is harvested and to speed up the planting of winter wheat. The top leadership promised to give strong support for completion of fall harvest and planting of over-wintering crops to ensure food security and commodity price stability.  According to Y...

China's swine industry is in liquidation mode exactly two years after hog supplies cratered in the fall of 2019. In August 2019, a vice premier ordered officials to build hog farms to replenish pork supplies asap. Now the same officials are being ordered to pare back herds in their provinces and counties.  China's Economic Weekly reported that six of the top hog-producing companies in China reported losses for the third quarter of 2021. That includes a loss of 500 million to 1 billion yuan for the largest company, Muyuan, a loss of 2.58-2.98 billion yuan for New Hope Group, and a loss of 6.75-7.25 billion yuan for Wens Foods. In Hunan Province, farms are reportedly taking losses by selling weaned pigs to barbecue restaurants because the farms would lose even more by raising them to slaughter weight. The pork glut is an outcome of frenzied expansion. Last year the chairman of hog company Tangrenshen told Economic Weekly that companies like his planned to add production capaci...

Chinese officials are promising to rescue the global trading system as they celebrate the country's 20th year as a World Trade Organization (WTO) member. While China spent its early years in the WTO watching and learning, confident leaders now seem to be maneuvering toward a more proactive role as a leader of the organization.  Last week  a forum was held by China's agriculture ministry  to discuss the country's agricultural development in the 20 years since it joined the WTO. Deputy Agriculture Minister Ma Youxiang emphasized that China's agriculture had "withstood" multiple tests of a global food crisis, world financial crisis, and the covid-19 pandemic. Ma went on to praise China's achievement of "stability," and insisted that China's agriculture has become more globally competitive. Ma added that China has also enhanced its ability to participate in food and agricultural governance, code for China's ambitions to take a more proactive ...