Dim Sums: Agricultural Markets in China

China Enterprise United Grain Reserve Ltd. Company was established yesterday to manage China's national grain reserve. The new company is a joint venture between two state-owned grain behemoths, Sinograin and COFCO. The merger is part of a bigger program to wring inefficiencies out of China's bloated state-owned enterprises. Officials praised the new grain company as signaling a new chapter in maintaining national food security, improving capacity to intervene in grain markets, and enhancing communist party leadership.  Earlier this year, explanations of maneuvers to meld Sinograin and COFCO explained that efficiencies could be gained by combining the two companies' overlapping businesses in specialized joint ventures. Sinograin is responsible for managing national grain reserves, but COFCO also hires out facilities to store grain and is China's premiere player in international grain trade. China Enterprise United Grain Reserve Ltd. Co will utilize Sinograin's poli...

Chinese officials thought they could stabilize the pork industry by replacing small farmers with corporate behemoths. China cut the number of pig farming operations in half over 5 years. Of the 21 million producers that remain, China's top 4 companies produced about 78 million hogs last year, about 12 percent of the country's total. But the industry is as unstable as ever.  Data from Ministry of Agriculture price reports. Compiled from China livestock industry yearbooks and 1996 agricultural census. China's number-2 pig producer, Jiangxi Zhengbang Technology Co., attracted attention in July with reports that some of its pigs were starving due to disrupted feed deliveries . There were reports that farmers producing hogs for Zhengbang in multiple provinces were not getting feed supplies, farmers were not getting paid, and employees complained of unpaid wages.  This summer, Zhengbang's monthly hog sales volume shrank to less than half the pace of a year ago. Another indica...