China's Riddle: Corn Deals

WSJ ^ | 08/05/10 | BRIAN SPEGELE And SCOTT KILMAN

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[Mikey_1962]

Just another commodity sent to China to come back as value added finished goods.

No different than scrap steel, or scrap paper.

Expect food processing jobs here to decline.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Well, at least, it is not as bad as American rocket technology turning into a new value added product known as a carrier-killing missile.

[houeto]

What’s your take on it? I’m thinking livestock feed but that’s just a guess.

[STONEWALLS]

...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.

[TigerLikesRooster]

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.

[Farmer Dean]

The Russians announced this week that they were cancelling all wheat exports.Could the Chinese be importing corn in response to this?

[piroque]

...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.

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.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Probably. Russia would have its own bad harvest and decided to keep wheat at home. They urged Kazakhstan to do the same.

[bert]

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

[TigerLikesRooster]

Right. On the other hand, during the manufacturing process, some chemicals or additives of dubious quality would be mixed in, either on purpose or out of sheer negligence, which would poison Chinese consumers.
D*mn evil foreign capitalist out to slowly poison Chinese to death./sarc

[Deaf Smith]

They're buying last year's (or older) crop.

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/

[Sherman Logan]

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.

[STONEWALLS]

“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.

[TigerLikesRooster]

If Obama decides to play chicken against China, that is possible. China's leverage is U.S. debt while U.S.'s are military and food(grains.)

Whoever is in White House, things would go ugly. It would be no longer just a matter of business and economy for now on.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Correction: forfrom now on

[STONEWALLS]

...”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.

[GOPJ]

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...

[nascarnation]

urban black Democrats have no understanding of agriculture or international trade.

actually it's rumored that Baraq was pretty knowledgeable about growing weed in Hawaii.....