China, Russia to deepen soybean cooperation

A matchmaking meeting for Sino-Russian soybean trade and investment was held in Harbin, capital city of China’s northernmost Heilongjiang province, on Nov 21, according to officials.

It attracted the participation of around 200 enterprises from 20 provinces and states from China and Russia, as well as representatives of government departments and scientific research institutions.

During the meeting, a comprehensive introduction to the Sino-Russian soybean cooperation and related policies was conducted.

Also conducted were in-depth exchanges about the entire industry chain cooperation in soybean trade, planting, processing, logistics and scientific research.

The two sides agreed that it was necessary to give full play to the complementary advantages of each other -- to promote the long-term, stable and sustainable development of the Sino-Russian soybean trade and investment cooperation.

Statistics from the General Administration of Customs of China revealed that in 2018 China imported more than 88 million tons of soybeans from abroad, of which 817,000 tons were imported from Russia, an increase of 64.7 percent on the previous year.

Russia ranks sixth among China's soybean importing countries, but its soybean accounts for less than 1 percent of China’s total imported amount. China and Russia have broad room for improvement in deepening soybean trade trading, officials said.

They said the meeting was a pragmatic move to implement the consensus of the Chinese and Russian heads of state on deepening cooperation in the trade of soybeans.

In June this year, China and Russia jointly signed the "Development Plan for Deepening Sino-Russian Soybean Cooperation" -- reaching an important consensus on expanding the soybean trade and deepening cooperation in the entire industry chain, as well as proposing to strive to import 3.7 million tons of soybeans from Russia by 2024.

China is the largest soybean importer in the world.

In July, the General Administration of Customs issued an announcement to expand the imported soybean production quotas for Russia from its five eastern regions of the Far East to the whole territory, and to increase soybean transport methods such as using ships.

The Russian side also has had strong demand for broadening its soybean cooperation. Wolakov Andrei Vladimirovich, the representative of the Far Eastern Federal State of the Russian Soybean Union, said that China had advanced modern technology in the production of organic soybeans, agricultural machinery and processing equipment.

He said he hoped to introduce Chinese technology and strengthen cooperation in the soybean industry.

As the frontier and main driver of Sino-Russian soybean and agricultural cooperation, Heilongjiang drew the attention of both Chinese and Russian businesses attending the meeting.

To date, there have been 159 Heilongjiang enterprises investing in agriculture in Russia with a total investment of $1.264 billion. In 2018, Heilongjiang imported 803,000 tons of Russian soybeans, accounting for 98.3 percent of China’s soybeans imported from Russia.

Wang Xianhua, deputy director of the Heilongjiang Department of Commerce, said that his city would take measures to promote expanding soybean cooperation between China and Russia by improving soybean customs clearance efficiency and encouraging more Chinese enterprises to expand soybean planting in Russia.