Chinese Entrepreneurs Seek Soymeal From India

Over the last five days we have booked over 20,000 metric tonnes of soymeal from India, said Liu Yonghao, chairman of the Hope Group, Chinas largest private enterprise.

Yonghao said his companys annual consumption of soymeal was about 300,000 metric tonnes. The rapidly improving living conditions in China have seen soymeal consumption going up, Yonghao said. How much we take from India depends on the price and quality. It will vary from time to time.

Yonghao set up his firm in 1982 with a $200 stake. Group turnover in 1995 was $400 million. The process of development of my own company is illustrative of the development of the Chinese private sector, Yonghao said.

 

Chinas GNP, which has grown 9.5 per cent each year since economic reforms were launched in 1979, is estimated to rise by 10 per cent in 1996, officials said. We are trying to grasp all opportunities that may prove useful to us, he added. If your policy permits, we can also look into real estate development.

Xiu Lirong, the chairwoman of the Dunhuang Group, which has interests ranging from textiles to real estate and an annual turnover of more than $20 million last year, also said she hoped to tie up deals for the import of rice and soymeal. I have met some firms and we will decide once we receive their quotations, she said.

Yonghao and Lirong were part of a 14-member delegation of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, Chinas biggest confederation of industry, which is visiting India. Bilateral trade between India and China is presently just 0.04 per cent of total Chinese foreign trade, said Zhang Xuwu, the leader of the delegation. Trade between the two countries stood at $1.2 billion last year, Zhuwu said.

China buys US soybeans:US exporters reported net sales of 105,200 tonnes of soybeans and 4,500 tonnes of soyoil to China in the week ending Oct 31, US Agriculture Department said yesterday. The 105,200 tonnes of soybeans included 55,200 in new sales and 50,000 in destination changes.

USDA said soybean sales to China so far this marketing year totalled 598,000 tonnes, including 110,200 tonnes exported this week, the first shipment of the year.

Total US soyoil sales to China are 371,500 tonnes this marketing year.