Chinese industry insiders see great potential for soybean imports from Russia

China is promoting highquality imports of soybeans alongside its growing domestic production. Chinese agricultural experts and industry insiders noted that the cooperation between China and Russia in the soybean industry serves as a win-win cooperation which not only meets China’s growing demand for imports, but also provides Russia with a huge export market.

They made the remarks during a meeting, which was held amid the ongoing eighth China-Russia Expo from May 16 to 21 in Harbin, Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, which borders Russia’s Far East region.

Analysts said that Russia has huge potential in soybean cultivation and exports, which is an important focus of China-Russia cooperation.

The bilateral cooperation in various fields is accelerating.

Driven by the market need for diversifying sources of supplies for food security reasons while reducing reliance on singular suppliers, it is believed that China’s soybean imports from Russia will increase in the near future, experts said.

Russia is also likely to become a major supplier of carbohydrate foods such as wheat, rice, and corn to China, reducing the country’s reliance on protein (mainly referring to soybeans) imports from the US. This shift in trade dynamics will strengthen the cooperation between China and Russia in the agricultural sector, an industry insider told the Global Times on Thursday.

China is one of the largest markets for agricultural commodities and also the world’s largest importer of soybeans. As the supply and demand of grains in China have long been in a tight balance, moderate imports are important to ensure China’s food security, effectively compensating for the structural shortage of grain production, Chen Yijuan, a soybean analyst from Shanghai told the Global Times.

Currently, the US and Brazil both serve as primary sources of China’s soybean imports, with the proportion of China’s agricultural imports from Brazil steadily increasing.