Prices for hog complex in China continued to show bullishness in the last week of May with the national average piglet price up nearly 4% from the previous week. Live hog and pork average prices also gained about 1%.
However, they were down considerably compared with the same week last year, meaning prices are still near a relatively low level compared to previous years. As the companies keep reducing their herd, the upside potential for prices is still large.
Egg and chicken prices were mostly stable week on week, but the price level is up significantly year on year, especially for eggs. Egg prices in China firmed drastically in the past year due to higher feed cost, Covid restrictions and macro inflationary pressure.
Prices for soymeal, the most popular protein source in animal feed, was up more than 21% year on year as of last week even though prices have stabilized in the past week.
Hog and poultry feed prices were steady week on week but were still up more than 6% compared with the same point last year.
Wheat harvest 20% complete
China’s Ministry of Agriculture has said that wheat harvest across the country is now over 20% complete with a total of 65.2 million nu (4.3 million hectares).
Hubei is in the final stages of harvest. Harvest is estimated at 30% complete in Anhui, 25% in Henan, 10% in Jiangsu, 10% in Shaanxi.
Ongoing covid restrictions still appear to be causing logistics issues, as the Ministry of Agriculture and 10 other Ministries issued a notice re-iterating that local government officials can’t arbitrarily block roads or restrict the passage of agriculture equipment.
Yunnan crop output to beat expectations this year
Crop production in Yunnan province located in southwest China is expected to surpass expectations thanks to favorable weather condition and government stimulus, the provincial department of agriculture said.
As of last Friday, more than 14 million mu (933,333 hectare) of planted summer crops have been harvested, accounting for 95% of total planted area.
While the planting of fall crops have reached 34.1 million mu (2.27 million hectare), beating expectations.
Yunnan is one of the first provinces that have planted China’s 2022/23 new crop corn with roughly half of the planted crops in the jointing stage.
The province also produces about 10% of China’s potatoes and crops have begun to mature as of last week.
US corn, soybean exports to China slump
Shipments of 2021/22 US corn and soybean crops to China during the week of May 20-26 fell sharply week on week while sorghum exports also dropped, USDA showed late Tuesday.
Corn exports to China during the week totalled 268,818 tons, down 66% from the previous week. The volume to China only accounted for 19% of overall US corn exports that week.
Soybean exports slid to a new 2022-low at 63,585 tons last week, down 61% from the previous week. Shipments to China represented about 17% of total US soybean exports during the week.
In contrast, US sorghum exports to China slid 28% week on week, totalling 140,453 tons last week. This was the lowest volume in four weeks.
US wheat shipments to China was 490 tons last week out of 344,000 tons of total US exports globally.