October 6, 2008 Source: Economic Reference Newspaper
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 5 According to Customs statistics, China imported 5.39 million tons of edible vegetable oils in the first eight quarters of the year, registering a growth of 4.7% that is 18.9 percentage points down compared with that of the same period last year.
China’s imports of edible vegetable oils reached its height of 905,000 tons in April this year and then fell gradually in the following months and down to the bottom of only 508,000 tons in June that was the lowest since 2007. The imports rebounded to 730,000 tons in July but fell apparently back to 580,000 tons in August.
Customs analysis shows that there are two major reasons for the reduced growth of China’s imports of edible vegetable oils. Firstly, as the biggest source of China’s soybean imports, Argentina’s bean oil output and export are affected by its domestic farmer strikes. Secondly, China extends the validity period of 1% interim duty of soybeans to September 30, which affects the imports of bean oils as soybeans can be substitutes of bean oils.
