Vegetable Oil + China Pig Index

choi

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(1) Vegetable oil   |  What’s Cooking?  Edible oils are filling fuel tanks as well as bellies. Economist,
Sep 17, 2011.
http://www.economist.com/node/21529085
(soybean "Farmers in America, the world’s top exporter, and Brazil, in second place, are switching to maize as sky-high prices make it more attractive")

Note:
(a) Glencore
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glencore
(a multinational mining and commodities trading company headquartered in Baar, Switzerland)
(b) For soya, see soybean
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean
(soybean (U.S.) or soya bean (UK); section 1 Name; the chart headlined "Top Soybean Producers" in section 5 Cultivation)
(c) palm oil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_oil
(extracted from the pulp of the fruit of the oil palm Elaeis guineensis [native to Africa]; naturally reddish in color because it contains a high amount of beta-carotene 胡蘿蔔素; semi-solid at room temperatures)


(2) Tom Orlik, In China, Officials Struggle With Food-Price Indigestion. Wall Street Journal, Sept 22, 2011.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903791504576584642633158706.html

Quote:

"The link between movements in China's CPI [consumer price index] and pork prices are so close some have dubbed it [CPI] the China Pig Index.

"Half of China's population still lives in the countryside, with many farming small plots or raising pigs and chickens in the yard. This level of fragmentation makes China's food supply unstable * * * the consequence is volatile food prices.

"In the US, where large-scale agriculture is the norm * * * Liu Hongfeng, who manages sales for a farm of 16,000 pigs near Beijing, says large operations like his account for only 20% of the [China's] market. The rest run backyard operations, which are their main source of income.

My comment:
(a) Pig industry in Taiwan.
(i) 王旭昌, 台灣的養豬產業現況. 中央畜產會, undated.
http://vettech.nvri.gov.tw/Appendix/publication/972.pdf
("自1997 年口蹄疫爆發後迄今，台灣由豬肉出口國逐漸轉為進口國")
(ii) Taiwan’s Hog Industry—3 Years After Disease Outbreak; Agricultural Outlook. Economic Research Service (ERS), US Department of Agriculture (USDA), October 2000.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/agoutlook/oct2000/ao275h.pdf

Take a look only at the graphic in the last page (p 23): in 1994/95 Taiwan contributed to about half of Japan's pork imports, but nil after the 1997 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).
(iii) Take a look at the graphic headlined "Figure 35 Major pork trade flows" in
Pork, in International Agricultural Baseline Projections to 2005. ERS, USDA, July 1997, page 180 (AER-750).
www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aer750/AER750h.PDF

(A) Even without FMD (see next paragraph), the report at p 181 projected Taiwan pork export to decrease gradually, as domestic consumption (in Taiwan) picked up.
(B) foot-and-mouth disease
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot-and-mouth_disease
(On the 19th of March 1997, a sow at a farm in Hsinchu prefecture, Taiwan was diagnosed)

Quote: "Taiwan had previously been the major exporter of pork to Japan, and among the top 15 pork producers in the world in 1996. During the outbreak, over 3.8 million swine were destroyed at a cost of US$6.9 billion. The Taiwanese pig industry was devastated as a result, and the export market was in ruins. In 2007, Taiwan was considered free of FMD, but was still conducting a vaccination program, which restricts the export of meat from Taiwan.

(iv) Taiwan - The pig industry. Meat Trade News Daily, Jan 15, 2011
http://www.meattradenewsdaily.co.uk/news/130111/taiwan___the_pig_industry__0.aspx
("Taiwan’s hog output has surpassed rice since 1986 to become the No. 1 item of agricultural and livestock products. The average annual hog output was NT$57 billion [~ $2b] in the recent three years, accounting for 16% of the total agricultural output")

(b) Livestock industry in US.
The United States Meat Industry at a Glance. American Meat Institute (AMI),  
http://www.meatami.com/ht/d/sp/i/47465/pid/47465
("The meat and poultry industry is the largest segment of U.S. agriculture")

Please read the entire web page.


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