Dim Sums: Agricultural Markets in China

Chinese officials claim that livestock producers are substituting amino acids for soybean meal in animal feed, reducing China's reliance on imported soybeans. A spike in China's exports of the main amino acid is inconsistent with these claims. China has built massive amounts of processing capacity to produce lysine--the most common amino acid--from corn (the main raw material). China is now the world's dominant lysine producer and exporter. Yet a November 2023 report by China's Mysteel agricultural market site said production of lysine is less than half of China's production capacity. Mysteel said China's amino acid industry suffers from serious excess capacity. At peak output in 2020 Mysteel reports that China used 11 million metric tons of corn to produce lysine and other feed additives. Since then production has slipped to 8 million metric tons in 2023 due to weak feed demand and high corn prices. This does not agree with proclamations from Chinese officials...

Chinese state media reported an anthrax outbreak that infected 5 workers on a beef cattle farm in Qiji Town in western Shandong Province. Authorities apparently waited until they could no longer cover up the outbreak before issuing a public report. Social media reveals skepticism about government reporting on disease outbreaks. According to a report issued August 2 by China Central Television (and in English by China Daily ), five workers on a beef farm in Shandong Province's Qiji Town had "mild" infections of anthrax on their skin and are being treated in isolation. The outbreak was in Yanggu County in western Shandong's Liaocheng City. Authorities said all animals on the infected farm have been culled and properly disposed, local farms have been quarantined, the local area has been sanitized, and testing has found no indication of disease in other people or animals.  The report explained that anthrax is an acute zoonotic infectious disease caused by Bacillus anthra...