Overview
China's policies on agriculture and agricultural trade have changed
dramatically over the last 20 years, reducing the role of government
intervention and centralized planning and simultaneously increasing
the role of market forces. China's membership in the World Trade
Organization (WTO) will further increase reliance on market forces,
and will enhance opportunities for U.S. agricultural exports. As
the incomes of China's 1.3 billion people continue to rise, demand
for more and higher quality food products will grow. Domestic production
will be unable to meet all of this demand, and in the future China
will be a key market for agricultural exports.
Features
Who Will China Feed? (June 2008). Though China continues to be a major player in global food exports, growing resource constraints and environmental costs could mean an end to "easy" growth for Chinese agriculture.
China Currency Appreciation Could Boost U.S.
Agricultural Exports (August 2007). China's
undervalued exchange rate keeps prices of most U.S. food and agricultural products
too high to be competitive in China. Appreciation of the Chinese currency will
increase the purchasing power of Chinese consumers on world markets and increase
China's demand for imported commodities.
Recommended Readings
Demand for Food Quantity and Quality in China (January 2007).
As incomes rise, Chinese consumers are changing their diets and demanding greater
quality, convenience, and safety in food. The demand for quality by high-income
households has fueled recent growth in China’s food retail sector, but the
food market is becoming segmented as disparities in income widen.
Food
Safety Improvements Underway in China (November 2006). Facing growing demand
abroad and at home for safer food, China is overhauling its
food system to meet international food safety standards.
China's Food and Agriculture: Issues for the 21st Century (April 2002). A series of short articles gives an overview of food consumption and production trends and policy issues facing one of the key players in world agricultural trade.
See all recommended readings...
Recommended Data Products
China Agricultural and Economic Data.
A database containing official Chinese statistics collected by ERS
on agricultural production, food consumption, price indexes, macroeconomic
data, and industrial output.
Commodity
and Food Elasticities Database allows queriable searches
of income, expenditure, and own- and cross-price elasticities
for specific commodities and countries, which can be ranked
and sorted. The elasticities are mainly from U.S. research
on consumer demand published in working papers, dissertations,
and peer-reviewed journals. The greatest number of demand studies
are for vegetables, fruits, meat, and grocery products in the
United States and China.
Production, Supply, and
Distribution (PS&D) contains official USDA data on production,
supply, and distribution of agricultural commodities for the United
States and major importing and exporting countries. The database
provides projections for the coming year and historical data for
more than 200 countries and major crop, livestock, fishery, and
forest products.
Foreign Agricultural Trade of the United
States (FATUS) provides U.S. agricultural exports and imports,
volume and value, by country, by commodity, and by calendar year,
fiscal year, and month, for varying periods, such as 1935 to the
present or 1989 to the present. Updated monthly or annually.
Related Briefing Rooms
Agricultural Baseline Projections
World Trade Oranization (WTO)
U.S. Agricultural Trade
Corn
Cotton
Rice
Wheat
Soybeans and Oil Crops
Related Links
Data and information on China are available from USDA, other U.S.
government sources, international organizations, China's government,
universities, and other sources.
See all other related links...
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