Chinese farmers need lifeline to ride out wave of US imports in trade war deal, agribusiness tycoon says

The Chinese government needs to improve its fiscal and industry policies to protect domestic producers expected to be squeezed by higher imports of US agricultural products, according to agribusiness tycoon Liu Yonghao.

“More imports of soybeans and corn will help reduce the cost of raising livestock, but Chinese farmers, and the animal feed industry in China will definitely be under pressure,” Liu said on the sidelines of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference on Sunday. “Agriculture in the United States is much more efficient than in China and they will have the upper hand.”

Liu, the 67-year-old billionaire chairman of China’s New Hope Group and a CPPCC member, runs the country’s biggest agriculture conglomerate. Each year, the company produces around 20 million tonnes of animal feed and processes 1.3 billion chickens and eight million pigs, according to its website.

His comments echo concerns about whether China can maintain a balanced farming structure to ensure food security as it prepares to buy more American farm products as part of concessions to end the country’s long-running trade war with the United States.

In a meeting late last month, Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He and US President Donald Trump agreed that China would buy an extra 10 million tonnes of US soybeans. China has also proposed buying an additional US$30 billion a year of US agricultural products including soybeans, corn and wheat, on top of pre-trade war levels, Bloomberg reported.