China To Be World’s Largest Ag Importer

In 2011, China moved ahead of Mexico and Canada as the number one market for U.S. agricultural goods, Reuters reports. China will be looking at foreign markets for agriculture imports as its domestic farming production is limited by small-scale operations and a lack of robust science and technology. Due to increasing prosperity among the Chinese population, the next 10 years is expected to be a period of fast growth in China’s consumption of meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products.

The country already leads in production and consumption of pork and is the world’s top importer of soy and cotton. It’s also the second largest consumer of corn. However, constraints on production have resulted in the nation’s agricultural output not keeping pace with demand. China has already increased its imports of corn and pork in 2011. To cope with the country’s fast-growing demand for agricultural products, China’s state-run COFCO Co. Ltd., will spend more than $10 billion on overseas mergers and acquisitions in the next five years, the China Daily reported recently.