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China has increased its estimates for the country’s imports of soyabean imports and production of edible oil, according to the monthly update of its China Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates (Casde) reported by AgriCensus.

The estimates for both the 2022/23 marketing year (MY) and 2023/24 MY – China’s MY runs from October to September the following year for corn, soyabeans and vegetable oils – were increased to 99.86M tonnes and 97.25M tonnes, respectively, the 12 September report said.

These totals compared to the previous month’s estimates of 95.2M tonnes and 94.22M tonnes, respectively.

The expected increase in 2023/24 soyabean imports is mainly due to a high demand for feed protein raw materials from China’s livestock and poultry industry, according to Casde analysts quoted in the report.

Despite the estimated growth in imports, the analysts said global soyabean prices remained relatively high due to disruptive factors such as high temperatures during the critical growth period of the new season of US soyabeans combined with a decline in the CNY/US$ exchange rate.

The estimates for edible oil production were increased for both the 2022/23 MY and 2023/24 MY to reach 30.5M tonnes and 30.25M tonnes respectively. This compared with earlier estimates of 30.09M tonnes and 29.7M tonnes made in August.

Increases in edible oil production were mainly due to the rise in estimated soyabean imports, which could boost soyabean oil output, according to Casde analysts.

Estimates for Chinese edible oil imports remained unchanged for 2022/23 and 2023/24 at 8.63M tonnes and 8.43M tonnes, respectively.

Edible oil consumption estimates also remained unchanged for both periods at 36.32M tonnes and 36.61M tonnes, respectively.

The committee also retained its estimates for soyabean production for both 2022/23 and 2023/24 at 20.29M tonnes and 21.46M tonnes, respectively.