Posted on 08/08/2010 6:15:45 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
AUGUST 5, 2010
China's Riddle: Corn Deals
Analysts puzzle over meaning behind surge in imports despite policy of self-sufficiency
By BRIAN SPEGELE And SCOTT KILMAN
China's first big purchases of U.S. corn in more than a decade have triggered a debate over whether exports of America's biggest crop are entering a new golden era. But the one party that could potentially settle the question—China's government—is hardly talking.
Excitement was sparked in June when a ship loaded with U.S. corn arrived at the port of Longkou on China's eastern coast—the first ship fully loaded with U.S. corn to dock in China in about 15 years. It was followed by four more. Journal Community
China has now imported about 1.2 million metric tons of corn this year from the U.S., the world's largest producer, compared to total imports from all countries of less than 100,000 tons in previous years.
Farmers, traders, and agricultural economists are divided over the implications of this surge. Some see it as the arrival of a long-anticipated age of big corn exports to China to feed its increasingly wealthy population. Others think it's probably a short-term blip caused by recent droughts.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
P!
No different than scrap steel, or scrap paper.
Expect food processing jobs here to decline.
What’s your take on it? I’m thinking livestock feed but that’s just a guess.
...I’m all for this...American farmers need all the business they can get...a guy I hunt with is working 1500 acres and milking 400 head of Holsteins...at one point last winter, his cash flow was negative $1100 a day....it’s a family operation, and I’d like to see farms like that to continue.
They did have long drought in N. China this year. Now much of the place is under the worst flood in decades. So they have to make up for the short fall.
Not sure if the imported corn is for human consumption or cattle feed.
The Russians announced this week that they were cancelling all wheat exports.Could the Chinese be importing corn in response to this?
Now we can look for the obama to enact an embargo on all grain exports like peanut carter ,,, and kill all the markets we've finally been able to win back.
Probably. Russia would have its own bad harvest and decided to keep wheat at home. They urged Kazakhstan to do the same.
Unmentioned or barely mentioned were processed foods, those for people and for animals.
It is possible and even likely that borderless American and European companies have established businesses that require corn as feed stock for their products.
That would be ADM and Nestle and Coca cola and Kraft.
They now churn out all sorts of new and desirable consumer food products to feed the hordes and I mean hordes of city dwellers who have or are adapting to the western huried lifestyles where corn products provide quick and tasty meals.
Corn is being imported by western companies for use by their manufacturing plants
The scuttlebutt is that the Chinese discovered Tex-Mex food and have invited EL Chico & El Fenix franchises into the country.
They need lots of corn for tortillas.
s/
Throughout the world, when people climb above absolute poverty, one of the first changes in their lifestyle is eating more meat.
To produce a pound of meat takes 5 to 10 pounds of grain.
“Now we can look for the obama to enact an embargo on all grain exports like peanut carter”
OUCH!...I hope you’re wrong my friend, but I wouldn’t put it past Obama...urban black Democrats have no understanding of agriculture or international trade.
Whoever is in White House, things would go ugly. It would be no longer just a matter of business and economy for now on.
...”U.S.’s are military and food(grains.)”
and another one that I only recently learned about: medicines...that category has really grown in recent years...despite the Left attacking the evils of ‘big pharma’, the fact is we’re still tops in life saving meds...the Chinese medical market is huge and getting bigger all the time.
Chinese mass starvation wasn’t that long ago... a memory - while not fresh - that exist within the old... Add the reality of Chinese “long term” thinking.. add Putin’s not selling any wheat... Castro’s running off the mouth about war...
actually it's rumored that Baraq was pretty knowledgeable about growing weed in Hawaii.....
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