Decrease in grain imports from China has increased the anxiety of exporting countries.
17-Sep-2024 05:39 PM
Beijing. The ongoing economic crisis in China, a leading importer of food grains and pulses-oilseeds, has increased the anxiety and restlessness of exporting countries.
There is a good stock of agricultural products in warehouses and godowns there, but the demand for it is seen to be weak. The economic recession has forced the people of China to reduce their expenses.
Countries like America, Canada and Australia are especially facing difficulties due to this difficult situation of China. Soybean and corn are exported to China from America, wheat and canola from Canada and wheat and barley from Australia on a large scale.
Apart from this, China also imports rice from many Asian countries, which include Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and Pakistan etc. There is also a large import of peas from Russia and Canada and palm oil from Indonesia-Malaysia. China is the largest importer of Brazilian soybean.
There are signs that the weak demand from China is affecting the global market. There has been a sharp decline in the export of barley from France to China, while not even a single ship of new season corn from America has left for China yet.
On the other hand, wheat producers in Australia are stuck in a state of confusion. The harvesting of the new crop of wheat is going to start there in the coming weeks and there are no positive signals from China, although it is one of its buyers.
The situation in China is not likely to change much in the near future. The number of elderly people there has increased significantly and the condition of the economy is getting cold.
Due to this, the demand and consumption of food grains is likely to remain weak in the future as well.
Producers and traders will need to adjust to a very different scenario of demand, so it will have to trade food grains and other agricultural products from abroad very thoughtfully.
China has been importing food grains heavily for years for internal food security, but now there are signs of slowing down in the pace of imports, due to which it is natural for the exporting countries to be worried.