China will export more grain this year although SARS has
handicapped domestic transportation and purchasing, a senior
official of the China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Import
and Export Corporation said yesterday.
China's grain exports are expected to continue to grow rapidly this
year because international grain prices and market demand are
favourable, COFCO Vice-President Yu Xubo told China Daily.
China's corn is at least US$20 cheaper per ton than that of the
United States or South Korea.
He
estimated the firm will export at least 1.2 million tons of wheat,
5 million tons of corn and 1.7 million tons of rice this year,
compared with 700,000 tons, 3.95 million tons and 1.66 million tons
of last year respectively.
State-owned COFCO is China's largest grain exporter. It monopolizes
the country's wheat exports and makes up 48 per cent of its corn
exports and 97 per cent of rice exports, company data showed.
Yu
said grain export is mainly determined by domestic policies and
supply-and-demand situation on the international market and SARS
has little impact.
Both the firm's transaction and shipping volumes of wheat, corn and
rice more than doubled compared with the January-April period last
year, according to company statistics.
The growth momentum was retained in the single month of April, but
May statistics are not presently available to show how much the
SARS outbreak in mid-April has influenced China's grain
exports.
Yu
admitted, however, that short-run domestic transportation, mainly
by rail, and ship loading have become more complicated due to
disinfection requirements.
Business trips to and from major grain producing areas, which are
necessary for purchases and quality supervision and inspection,
have become extremely difficult because people flow is strictly
controlled during the epidemic period, he said.
The firm, like many other companies in China, had some of its
employees work at home during the period in order to reduce
interpersonal contact.
Yu
said employees have reduced face-to-face communications with
foreign clients and turned more to telephones, e-mails or fax
machines.
"Although Japanese clients are a bit worried, few have raised SARS
as an issue," said Yu.
He
said that even if some clients ask for SARS virus-free
certificates, they are affordable and available from the State
General Administration of Quality Supervision and Inspection and
Quarantine.
He
said employees resumed normal work at the end of May and the firm
is actively communicating with local governments and quality
supervision and inspection and quarantine offices so that SARS will
not become a block to the domestic grain trade.
China's grain exports saw surprising high growth last year due to
surplus stock at home and rising international prices.
Exports of wheat, corn and rice grew 26.4 per cent, 567.5 per cent
and 12 per cent year-on-year respectively, customs data showed.
But domestic surplus grain stocks are not expected to last long and
it is impossible for China to export large quantities of these
land-intensive agricultural products in the long run, said trade
experts.
China's land-intensive agricultural products lack competitiveness
on the international market because the average land area of
individual Chinese farmers is 0.5 hectares, only 1/40 of the
European Union and 1/400 of the United States.
(China Daily June 6, 2003)