Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
wheat mports. Chna mported US$1.5 bllon of wheat n 2004 and US$0.7
billion in 2005, mainly to replenish state grain reserves.
In the early 1990s, China imported a limited amount of edible vegetable
oilseeds. However, since 1997, imports of edible vegetable oilseeds have
increased rapidly, from US$1 billion to US$3.2 billion in 2001. Following entry
into the WTO, imports of edible vegetable oilseeds have been increasing
even more rapidly, jumping to US$5.3 billion in 2003, to US$6.7 billion in
2004, and to US$7.3 billion in 2005. The share of edible vegetable oilseeds
in total imports of cereals, edible vegetable oilseeds and vegetable oils
reached 61.2 per cent during 2002-05. Within the edible vegetable oilseeds
group, soybean has been overwhelmingly the largest import, accounting
for 95 per cent of total imports during 2002-05.
Edble vegetable ols are the next mportant commodtes n the mports
of cereals, edible vegetable oilseeds and vegetable oils. China imported
US$1.3 billion of edible vegetable oils annually during 1992-2001. Imports of
these commodities increased sharply during 2002-05, up to US$2.4 billion
annually. Soybean ol and palm ol are the most mportant commodtes n
this group. Their combined share was 88 per cent of total imports of edible
vegetable ols from 2002 to 2005.
Raw materials for textiles
Raw materials for textiles
s the second large group n Chna's agrcultural
imports. Since 2003 imports of raw materials for textiles have increased
sharply from US$2.9 billion, to US$5.4 billion in 2004 and US$6.9 billion in
2005. As a result, the share of raw materials for textiles in China's total
agricultural imports increased from 19.1 per cent in 1992-2001 to 21.1 per
cent in 2002-05. The dramatic increase in the import of raw materials for
textiles during 2003 to 2005 was mainly driven by the large expansion of
Chna's textle ndustry as the Agreement on Textles and Clothng (ATC)
was phased out at the end of 2004 and the mport quotas on textles and
clothng were to be abolshed from 1 January 2005.
Within this group, wool is a very important import commodity. From
1992 to 2001, imports of wool were fairly stable with an average annual
import value around US$0.65 billion. However, in 2004 and 2005, imports
ncreased to above US$1 bllon. The share of wool n the total mports of
