China: Jiangsu Province Emerges as a Top Palm Oil Importer
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There is no Oil Palm in China, and the earliest introduction in records appeared in 1926. A group of overseas Chinese introduced it from Southeast Asia to Hainan and other places on the northern edge of the tropics. The conditions for promoting large-scale planting in China are not yet mature, but it is possible to start with small-scale productive trial planting to accumulate experience and reserve technology and talents for subsequent commercial production. The value of domestic planting should be considered from the perspective of edible Oil safety. When the domestic edible Oil self-sufficiency rate is less than 30%, tropical Oil can make some contributions.
Zeng Xianhai, Head of the Oil Palm industry development research group at the Rubber Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, said that China had little understanding of Oil Palm, and what was introduced was a low-yielding thick-shelled species that had not been selected for breeding. In addition, due to various reasons, such as failure to master cultivation and management techniques and lack of professional talents, it is difficult to increase the yield. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the average Oil production per mu was only 20 to 30 kilograms, but now the main producing countries in Southeast Asia can reach an average of about 270 kilograms per mu.
According to AgFlow data, China imported 14,537 tons of Palm Oil from Indonesia in Jan-Apr 2023, followed by Malaysia (12,300 tons). In March 2023, China’s main suppliers of Palm Oil were Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand, and the main importing provinces were Jiangsu Province, Shanghai City, Fujian Province, Guangdong Province, and Zhejiang Province, in descending order. Among them, China imported 414,600 tons of Palm Oil (Palm olein + Palm stearin) from Indonesia, accounting for 83%; 83,000 tons of Palm Oil from Malaysia, accounting for 16.7%; 700 tons of Palm Oil from Myanmar, accounting for 0.14%.
In the same month, China’s import volume of Palm olein was 387,500 tons, and the import value reached 381 million US dollars. Among them, 48,900 tons of Palm olein was imported from Malaysia, with an import value of 47 million US dollars, accounting for 12.6% of the total; 338,600 tons of Palm olein was imported from Indonesia, with an import value of 333 million US dollars, accounting for 87.4% of the total.
The country imported 111,000 tons of Palm stearin in March, with an import value of 104 million US dollars. Among them, 34,000 tons of Palm stearin were imported from Malaysia, with an import value of 32 million US dollars, accounting for 31% of the total; 75,900 tons of Palm stearin were imported from Indonesia, with an import value of 71,200 million US dollars, accounting for 68.4% of the total; 600 tons of Palm stearin was imported from Myanmar, with an import value of 600,000 US dollars, accounting for 0.63% of the total.
The latest data from the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Commerce shows that from April 16 to 30, 2023, China’s Palm Oil imports reached 69,400 tons, a year-on-year increase of 91.2%.
Palm Meal in China
Recently, the price of Palm Meal has been sluggish. On the one hand, the import of Palm Meal in March hit a record high in a single month. The downstream terminals have great potential for the consumption of Palm Meal. The increase will inevitably increase the market supply, the price range will expand, the quotations will generally be falsely high, and the actual transaction price will be low.
As a supplementary Meal, downstream feeding companies purchase Palm Meal as needed and mainly use them as they are collected. In the short term, they pay attention to the impact of demand recovery on the Meal market and its arrival in Hong Kong. As of May 4, the national average market price of imported sunflower Meal was 1,549 yuan/ton.
Other sources: SOHU
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