Big rise in pork consumption boosts livestock fodder industry in the country
China’s increasing demand for meat has greatly benefited the country’s largest animal-feed providers. The shift to meat boosted demand for domestic feed and turned China into the world’s biggest animal feedmaker, the country breeds and eats more pigs than anywhere else on the planet, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. On the flip side, smaller companies have suffered. The number of China’s feed mills has fallen to 6,000 from 10,000 in 2010 as family-owned businesses were shuttered, according to a vice-director at the agriculture ministry. The surviving mills produced 200 million tons of animal feed in 2015, a 23 percent increase from 2010 and accounted for about one-fifth of global output, according to China’s agriculture ministry. Click here to read the full article.
Australian exports of nectarines, peaches to China set to surge in 2017
China could import up to one-quarter of the nectarines produced in Australia next year, as local growers plan to expand into the Chinese market with the lowering of trade tariffs. Australian-grown nectarines and peaches, both types of summerfruit, will be on their way to China as of Jan. 1 next year, and industry bosses have hailed the introduction of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) for opening the market. China is expected to purchase up to 15,000 tons of Australia’s nectarines or about 25 percent of the market, according to John Moore, Chief Executive Officer of Summerfruits Australia, said the agreement would help the entire industry, not just the main producers. Click here to read the full article.
Australia’s fastest-growing food company sells to China
Dongfang Modern Agriculture Holding Group was incorporated in Australia last year to own an existing agricultural business in Jiangxi, China. Growing and selling all its fruits in Southeastern China, the group now ranks as the biggest citrus grower in China by sales and has almost overtaken the Victoria-based Costa Group as the largest publicly traded Horticulture Company on the ASX. The laws have helped Dongfang Modern stay debt free even as it bought plantations, increasing its cultivation area by 15 percent since 2013 to about 8600 hectares. Production rose 19 percent to 240,000 metric tons for the year ended March 31, leading to sales of $199million. Profit, excluding some items, rose 30 percent to $90million. Click here to read the full article.
Hamersley Agricultural in beef farm acquisition spree
Farmers in Western Australia are said to be capitalising on the surging price of beef, with many properties on the market. It has prompted the company backed by one of WA’s oldest farming families, Hamersley Agricultural to embark on an acquisition spree to buy up to $300 million of beef farms in the state, with suggestions that the group is tapping Chinese investors to fund the deals. These acquisitions may face objections from the government, which recently blocked a $371m bid for Kidman, led by China’s Dakang Australia holdings on national interest grounds and later said Australia’s largest private landholding would not be sold to foreign interests. Click here to read the full article.