Chinanews, Beijing, Aug. 21 - Information from the Ministry of Commerce shows that every year, 90% of China's agricultural products and food exporters suffer from trade barriers presented by other countries, and the loss a mounts to 9 billion US dollars every year. The agricultural products affected by trade barriers have now extended from vegetables, fruits, tea, and honey to animal products and aquatic products. The technological trade barrier has become the biggest obstacle to the export of Chinese agricultural products.

On August 1, a US merchant ship was berthed at Qingdao Port with 52,000 tons of corn on board. In 2006, China will have to import at least 15 times more corn from other countries than last year.

While China imports large amounts of corn from other countries, Jiang Li, a farmer in Jilin province, is sitting quietly in his corn field, wondering if he can sell his corn for a good price this year. He has heard that the selling price of corn will not be very high this year so market prospect for corn was not very promising.

"If large amounts of corn flow in from abroad while our new corn is about to be sold in the market, the selling price will be low, or the corn might not be sold out," said an official of the Jilin Provincial Agricultural Affairs Commission.

In the past ten years, China imported several thousand tons of corn every year from abroad. Yet the corn import was not significant to China. During this period, China exported some 6-8 million tons of corn to South Korea and Japan.

In July 2005, the Ministry of Agriculture approved the import of transgenic corn from the United States. Since then, companies in Shenzhen, Shandong, and Sichuan have ordered 60,000 tons of corn from the United States. Analysts say that the trade situation for Chinese corn had changed from now on. Within years, China will become into a net corn import country.

The situation for Chinese corn export make people wonder whether the corn export will fall into the same dilemma as Chinese soybean production.

Last year, China imported 26.5 million tons of soybeans from abroad. During the first half of this year, the import of soybeans was 15% more than last year. It is expected that in 2006, the import of soybeans might exceed 30 million tons, as the production of domestic soybeans will only be 15 million tons. As a result, the plantation area for soybeans has decreased by 25% in Heilongjiang, the main soybean production base in China, and the price of soybeans has fallen from 2.7 yuan a kilo to 2.06 yuan a kilo. In spite of the price fall, local farmers say they still have a problem in selling their soybeans.
 
Editor: Yan