Expert: Chinese soybeans should adhere to the path of non-GM differentiation

Shao Haipeng

[China's unstable soybean production and market prices make the supply unstable and it is difficult to make overseas markets feel dependent]

Since 1995, China's soybean international trade has changed from a net exporter to a net importer, and the import volume has increased year by year. China's soybean imports usually account for nearly 2/3 of the global soybean trade.

According to the General Administration of Customs, soybean imports totaled 71.4 million tons in 2014, up 12.7 percent from a year earlier. As of October this year, China imported a total of 65.18 million tons of soybeans, an increase of 14.7 percent over the same period last year.

Since the vast majority of soybeans grown in countries that supply soybeans to China, such as the United States, Brazil and Argentina, are GM varieties, this means that the number of GM soybeans imported by China has been increasing.

The imported genetically modified soybean varieties have been strictly examined and approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and obtained the safety certificate of imported genetically modified agricultural products. These soybeans into China are mainly used for oil processing, soybean oil refining into the food field, while soybean meal, as the main processing products, is used for animal feed.

It has been widely spread in China that the import of foreign GM soybeans has had an impact on the production and market of domestic non-GM soybeans.

Zhang Xiaoping, chief representative of the U.S. Soybean Export Association in China, said in an exclusive interview with China Business Daily that Chinese soybeans need to maintain non-GM characteristics if they want to compete with imported GM soybeans. "it is precisely because others are growing GM soybeans that they show the value of non-GM soybeans and the value of non-GM soybeans."

The differentiation path of non-GMO

China Business Daily: do you agree with the view that imported soybeans have impacted the domestic soybean market?

Zhang Xiaoping: this has been said for a long time. However, after China imported more than 10 million tons of soybeans in 2000, this view became even more rampant. China imports soybeans from three main sources: the United States, Brazil and Argentina. In the early years, the United States accounted for a slightly larger share, but now Brazil has become the largest source of Chinese soybean imports.

It is obvious that the impact of soybean imports on the domestic industry is limited to production. This topic has been widely discussed in the industry before and after China's accession to the WTO, and people have been exploring how domestic soybeans respond to the impact of imported soybeans. More than ten years after China's accession to the WTO, China's soybean industry still exists, and there is no so-called "destruction", which shows that domestic soybean is the earliest and closest crop among China's important agricultural products to integrate with the international market. it can also withstand the impact of the international market.

Personally, there can be no progress without competition. If China's soybean industry is depressed by the so-called impact, then the main reason is that the soybean industry as a whole has not fully recognized the position of China's soybean in the world market, and it is even more impossible to talk about revitalizing the soybean industry.

Non-genetically modified (GM) is a prominent feature of Chinese soybean. China is the hometown of soybean, has the most abundant wild soybean germplasm resources, and is the treasure house of soybean variety improvement in the world. Because of this, this pure land needs to be protected. More importantly, we should explore how to revitalize China's soybean industry in a real and meaningful way.

At present, the output of non-GM soybeans in China is not very large, and the price should be much higher than that of imported GM soybeans. But the reason why we feel the impact of imported soybeans is that we always compare high-quality non-genetically modified soybeans with imported oil genetically modified soybeans, why not seize the commanding heights of the high-end soybean market? instead of competing with imported soybeans in a relatively low-end product market?

According to the differentiated market demand, we can produce different high-quality soybeans and soybean products to realize the market value of non-GM soybeans in China. This market is not only the domestic market, but also the international market; not only the soybean food market, but also the animal feed and edible oil market.

Daily News: in 2014, China produced only 12.2 million tons of soybeans. Have they all entered the high-end market?

Zhang Xiaoping: most of them don't. In 1993, China's demand for edible soybeans was almost 5 million tons, and now it is close to 11 million tons. In other words, at present, domestic soybeans can only be used for domestic food demand, and if the demand continues to increase, domestic production capacity cannot follow up accordingly, and it is possible that China's food soybeans will need to be imported from abroad in the future. It is obvious that in each of the past two or three years, many imports have been transferred to the food soybean market because of soybeans. This quantity is estimated to be as little as 3 million tons to as much as 5 million tons, close to 1 pound of the total amount of domestic soybeans.

How big is the international non-GM market?

Daily News: has the international non-GM market been opened?

Zhang Xiaoping: of course. In the world, there are two major consumer markets dominated by the European Union and Japan, consumers are particularly favored by non-GM soybean products, the market has long existed, and there is a growing trend. Japan imports about 2 million tons of non-GM soybeans from the United States at high prices every year to meet its domestic consumption demand for natto, bean paste, tofu and so on.

China's unstable soybean production and market prices often make the supply unstable. In this way, it is difficult to make overseas markets feel dependent, which is also a problem that China's soybean industry needs to solve.

Daily newspaper: anyway, in your opinion, there is a difference between genetically modified soybeans and non-GM soybeans?

Zhang Xiaoping: it is not to emphasize the difference between non-GM and GM, but if someone needs it, we have to be satisfied. The difference between non-GM and GM soybeans is a matter for scientists and a matter for government regulators. It is only said that since there is this market, we should serve the market well and do a good job in marketing to meet the needs of differentiation.

Why can't the price of non-GM soybeans go up in China now? The main reason is that the quality is not recognized, followed by unstable supply, and after-sales service is not in place. We should do a lot of marketing work, so that we can form a positive interaction. It is just that there is a lack of such organizations to formulate long-term plans for industrial development, to coordinate the entire industrial chain towards the common goals in the planning, and to implement the development plans in stages, steps and down-to-earth ways. So, fundamentally speaking, there is a problem with the soybean industry chain.

As for the highly market-oriented United States, everything is market-oriented. The development of new products and new modes of production are all determined by market demand. Of course, the market itself needs to be constantly developed. The big bean industry in the United States attaches great importance to developing the market, creating demand, protecting and expanding demand, as well as service demand. Focusing on global food security, food safety and sustainable development, American soybean farmers rely on modern technology, such as seed technology and precision agricultural technology, to improve the mode of production, increase crop yield and reduce production costs. all these can be used as a reference for China's soybean industry.