August 14 news: China’s Ministry of Agriculture’s monthly supply and demand report released on Friday showed that China’s soybean import forecast for 2021/22 was lowered due to weak demand for soybean meal.

The report said that China’s soybean imports in 2021/22 are expected to be 91.02 million tons, a decrease of 1.98 million tons from the previous month’s estimate. The reason is that the continuous loss of pig farmers has led to the reduction of soybean meal demand and the reduction of soybean crush.

The expected value of China’s edible oil production in 2021/22 was lowered to 27.68 million tons, down 320,000 tons from the previous month, due to lower production of soybean oil and peanut oil.

Edible oil imports in 2021/22 were also lowered from the previous month, as high import prices curbed demand.

The forecast for China’s soybean imports, production and planting area in 2022/23 is unchanged from the previous month, of which the import volume is expected to be 95.2 million tons, the output is 19.48 million tons, and the planting area is 9.933 million hectares.

As far as corn is concerned, abundant rainfall in most corn-producing areas in July is conducive to the growth of cereal crops, but floods in some areas of the Northeast have affected local corn growth.

The corn production in 2022/23 is expected to be 272.56 million tons, which is unchanged from the previous month’s forecast and 272.55 million tons of the previous year; the import volume is expected to be 18 million tons, the same as the previous month’s forecast, and lower than the previous year’s 20 million tons.

China’s corn feed consumption rose to 290.51 million tonnes in 2022/23, unchanged from last month’s forecast and up from 287.7 million tonnes a year earlier, as profit margins in the pig industry improve and wheat becomes less competitive, the report showed.