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Strategies & Market Trends : Commodities - The Coming Bull Market -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: craig crawford who wrote (306)	6/20/2001 11:08:17 PM
From: craig crawford	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1643

Grain Exporters Given Reassurance (Jun 18) chinaproducts.com The Wall Street Journal last week reported that agricultural officials and experts from the United States were disappointed at the findings of a recent study of China's grain reserve, which greatly exceeded their estimates. They had anticipated that China would become the world's largest importer of grain after its entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), which would considerably raise American exports of grain. For a long time, Western grain experts have doubted China's capacity for grain production. In the last decade of the 20th century, some "scholars" even raised the sensational question: Who will feed China's population in the 21st century? The implication was that China would import massive amounts of grain and thus cause an acute short supply in the world. To China the allegation wasn't worth rebutting. In fact, at the time, the Chinese central authorities were more concerned about how to persuade local governments to build barns using new technology to store surplus grain. Now nearly 10 years later, China is reducing its acreage for grain growth to alleviate the pressure of too much output. Allegations about China's "threat" to the world supply of grain are no longer heard. Last month, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) investigated China's wheat storage facilities before the harvest season. The study put the volume at 54.2 million tons, four times the original estimation. We understand the disappointment felt by US agricultural officials and experts, who have been lobbying Congress to facilitate China's WTO accession. Their problem is that they failed to see how much attention the Chinese Government has given grain production in order to feed its gigantic population. Ensuring a sufficient supply of grain has been a lifeline for the Chinese people, who once suffered dreadfully from decades of food scarcity. The Chinese Government has made grain production a top priority in its work since the mid-1960s. The old saying that "once you have grain in the barn you will never panic" has been ringing in the ears of every Chinese person. However, the Chinese are not content with just "not panicking". They want to improve their standard of life. One of the signs of improvement is the higher quality and increased variety of food on their dinner tables. Therefore, the Americans needn't worry. China's imports of American agricultural products will definitely rise after the WTO entry. Last year, although China exported more grain than it imported, the value of imported grain was 1.55 times that of the exported, because the imported grain was of a higher quality. And the imports of wheat last year were twice that of 1999 because of rising demand in the domestic market for higher quality wheat. In fact, Americans do not lack ways and means to hike exports of farm produce to China. Last year, American farm produce associations launched a project to teach 1,200 Chinese chefs in Shanghai, Beijing, Dalian and other major cities to cook American cuisine using American products. According to the dean of the American Cuisine College, who orchestrated the activity, the project was sponsored by the USDA and more than 30 American wheat, almond, peanut, orange, meat and aquatic product companies and associations. (Business Weekly)