December 5, 2014

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s  (USDA)  foreign staff forecasts that Chinese imports of U.S. corn will be at a four-year low of 2.5 million tons for 2014/15 as a result of Beijing refusing shipments from the U.S. over claims that they contain genetically modified strains that have been approved in Washington, DC, but not Beijing as of yet. The bureau states that because of Beijing’s slow approval process, the import restrictions that have affected the U.S. may begin to affect Brazil and Argentina, and goes on to add that Chinese officials may begin scrutinizing imports of alternative feed grains that Chinese mills have turned to in place of imported corn such as Thai cassava, Australian feed barley, and U.S. sorghum, which has  attracted government attention as imports have soared from 613,000 tons in 2012/13 to an expected 4.3 million tons in 2014/15. The USDA bureau in Beijing places Chinese corn inventory at 79.7 million tons – 2 million tons above the official USDA estimate, while the 2014 harvest is proving to be of high quality offering a high percentage of usable corn. With such a high inventory and health incoming crop, Chinese officials are expected to continue to restrict corn imports to promote the use of domestic stocks.

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