Beijing July 23 (Reporter Ji Suping Jilin Tai Zhao Mengqiu Li Ting) According to the Voice of China “News Story†at 7:15 pm, on the day before yesterday (21st), Cyprus was fully loaded with 61,000 tons of US corn. The freighter "Maria" arrived in Shenzhen. This is the first time that COFCO, the world's top 500 company, has imported large quantities of genetically modified corn in 14 years. For a long time, corn has always been self-sufficient in China, but this year, China has purchased more corn from the United States than in the past 15 years. This has made many people exclaim that the import of corn will usher in the "China moment." The tremendous changes in corn imports can not help but think of the fate of soybeans, also from the self-sufficiency to open up imports, but it gradually lost the right to speak in the market. What is the driving force behind the surge of foreign corn? Will it repeat the mistakes of soybeans? For farmers producing corn in China, this year is undoubtedly a bumper year. The purchase price of corn has risen a lot, and the farmers’ pockets have therefore whipped up. However, after the good news, there was another bad news. Recently, China’s corn imports have increased significantly. This has caused some farmers in major maize producing areas to be deeply concerned. Xu Junjiu, a farmer in Karen Town, Jiutai City, Jilin Province, said that the high purchase price of corn this year has never been seen before. If he is confronted with the impact of foreign corn at this time, he will undoubtedly crack down on the enthusiasm of grain farmers. Xu Junjiu: "This year's prices are relatively good. The dried glutinous rice is sold for more than 8 pounds. If this year's autumn harvest is affected by imported corn, the impact will be slightly less okay. The impact may be worse for the people's kind of land. There must be fluctuations. Now that everything is expensive for seeds, fertilizers, and labor, the impact is great, and the enthusiasm for grain production is poor." “The people use food as their heavenâ€, and this year’s quiet and dramatic changes in China’s corn imports have attracted much attention. According to customs data, as of May this year, China's cumulative import of 23,500 tons of corn, but the same period last year, the import volume is less than one-tenth of this figure. This made many people think ahead of time about the fate of soybeans. Originally, China’s soybeans were self-sufficient, but since the soybeans were liberalized, low-priced imported soybeans have flooded into the domestic market and many domestic-owned soybean oil crushing companies have been in trouble. Foreign grain merchants took the opportunity to aggressively attack China's soybean oil enterprises. China's soybean market was therefore subject to foreign capital and gradually lost its market discourse. Now that corn imports have increased significantly, some people in the industry are concerned that corn will repeat the mistakes of soybeans. However, the head of raw materials for a large corn deep processing enterprise in Jilin Province did not agree with this view: "The domestic price of corn is protected by the state, and its price has been very high. Due to the financial crisis, the price of corn in the United States is very low. Basically, the combined renminbi is basically a thousand years old, and imports are much cheaper than domestic production." More crucially, according to the person in charge, the imported corn this year is directed, and not all companies can get a share. Only a part of large-scale state-owned feed processing enterprises can enjoy corn import quotas, which include COFCO. The reporter telephoned COFCO and confirmed that they did import corn from the United States, but they refused to disclose the use of imported corn. Why does the country import corn in large quantities? According to Huang Liqun, general manager of consulting division of Shanghai Huiyi Consulting Co., Ltd., there are two main reasons for the increase in corn imports. Huang Liqun: “First, last year we saw a more significant reduction in corn production in Northeast China, which was more than 20%. The second reason is that the demand for deep processing of corn in China has increased substantially since the end of last year, because of its improved efficiency. The demand for corn has also increased significantly, resulting in tight domestic supply and demand, which has led to the import of corn." Although China has opened a new window for the import of corn, it should not be imported. There is still fierce controversy, and the arguments of the two factions are based on "food security." The anti-import group took soybean as a guide, emphasizing that avoiding corn's relapse into the downturn of soybeans is related to China's food security and stability; the import-supporting group believes that using internationally cheap food to stabilize domestic food price fluctuations is also an important measure to maintain food security. . This is really a difficult problem for policy makers. How do you choose between them? This year, the price of corn in China has gone up and it has reached the highest point in history. At this time, some people suggested that China should liberalize the import of corn to stabilize the high price of corn. However, Han Baojiang, professor of economics at the Central Party School, said that in order to protect the interests of farmers, China must not let go of corn imports. Han Baojiang: “Because of the protection of the interests of farmers, the most fundamental thing is to protect the reasonable rise of agricultural and sideline products prices. Only if its price increases, farmers can gain sufficient revenue from the sale of agricultural and sideline products, because the lessons of our soybean imports are very profound to us. We learn from the experience of Japan and South Korea. It mainly restricts the import of some agricultural products. Therefore, the import of domestic corn must not be released." Under the background of globalization, the use of international food to stabilize the domestic market has become the choice of more and more economies. However, it is equally important to safeguard their own food security and take into account the vital interests of domestic farmers. Japan and South Korea, which are across the sea from China, are both major food importers. Even so, during the process of importing food, the government is still the dominant and the trading company as a window for uniform imports. The food market is not completely liberalized. As a large populous country in China, food security issues are also factors that must be considered in the game. According to Mei Xinyu, a researcher at the Ministry of Commerce, there are still many things to do to ensure food security in China. Mei Xinyu: “One is the stability of arable land, the second is to ensure the investment and consolidation of the construction of farmland water conservancy infrastructure, and the other is to improve the infrastructure in terms of transportation and sales, and so on. Provide further protection in terms of variety and quality." Mini Measuring Tape,Mini Tape Measure,Small Tape Measure,Mini Retractable Tape Measure SHANGQIU CHAOYUE MEASURING TOOLS CO., LTD , https://www.calibrateds.com
Food security into the focus of dramatic increases in corn imports lead to controversy