China Agri News Week 39, 2020
This is the news overview of week 39 from the agricultural team of the Netherlands Embassy in Beijing.
New Zealand Fonterra sell its last farms to China
The New Zealand Dairy Cooperative Fonterra announced that it has agreed to sell its farms in China at a price of 555 million New Zealand dollars, to three well-known companies-Yili , Youran and San yuan. This means that after more than a year of strategic review, Fonterra finally ended its 10-year history of raising cattle in China. The takeover by Youran Animal Husbandry perfectly fits into its recently announced ambitious plans to acquire foreing farm assest through transactions (see source for more info, Chinese only: Xiao Shi Dai).
Chinese fruit prices expected to fall
It is expected that in autumn, common fruit categories such as apple and pear will flood onto the Chinese market, leading to a significantly drop in price in comparison with the same period last year. September was a transitional period for the new crop and the volumes in stock, so prices have risen steadily, however, after the holidays, prices are expected to fall with the new crop flooding onto the market (see source for more info: Fresh Plaza).
Short news:
· On September 30, president Xi Jinping, delivered a speech at the United Nations Biodiversity Summit. China will host the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Kunming in 2021 (source: Farmers’ Daily Oct.1st).
· Based on statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shaanxi Province produced 350,000 tons of concentrated apple juice last year, making it the largest apple juice producing area in China. In 2019, the land area for planting apples in Shaanxi Province was about 9.22 million mu, and the output is about 11.36 million tons, both of which rank first in China (source, Chinese only: Guoji Guoshu).