BEIJING, Nov 8 (Reuters) - China revised down its forecast for imports of cotton in the 2018/19 crop year to 1.5 million tonnes, compared with last month’s forecast of 2 million tonnes, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on Thursday.
Output of the fibre in 2018/19 is forecast to be 5.94 million tonnes versus last month’s 5.8 million tonnes, according to the ministry’s monthly China Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates.
Cotton ending stocks are forecast at 6.38 million tonnes versus a previous forecast of 6.74 million tonnes. (Reporting by Dominique Patton; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Thursday said it was expecting a bigger corn deficit for the 2018/19 crop year than it estimated last month, as animal feed makers used more of the grain and more new corn processing plants started up than earlier expected.
The deficit in corn stocks is now seen at 29.3 million tons, up from 22.3 million, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in its monthly crop report.
The wider shortfall is set to come even after the ministry said output would be slightly more in the 12 months ending September 2019 than its earlier forecast. It now expects production of 215 million tons of corn, up from last month’s 213 million, thanks to favorable weather and a bigger increase in planted acreage.
The ministry’s output data is significantly lower than numbers recently released by the country’s statistics bureau, which estimates output for the crop year at 259 million tons.
Corn consumption in 2018/19 is seen at 245.8 million tons, up from a previous forecast of 236.8 million, according to the agriculture ministry’s report.
Of that, demand from animal feed makers would rise by 7 million tons to 151.5 million tons, it said, helped by new feed standards.
It also warned that China’s soymeal consumption would drop significantly in 2018/19 as farmers’ interest in replenishing pig herds was impacted by the recent African swine fever outbreaks, and as animal feed makers and livestock farmers reduce protein levels in their feed.
China has reported more than 50 cases of highly contagious African swine fever since the first outbreak was discovered in early August.
Beijing issued new industry standards calling for capping protein content in animal feed last month, which the ministry said can cut soymeal consumption by 11 million tons.
Source: Reuters, India Thursday, 08 November 2018