Chinese soybean farmers are worried about their future. In the first ten months of the year, China imported 23.5 million tons of soybeans, up 9.7 percent on the same period of last year, as the price of imports dropped 12.2 percent to US$261 per ton.

The cheap soybean imports are putting pressure on local farmers who are having difficulty competing.

With their price advantage undercut, despondent Heilongjiang farmers are finding that home-grown soybean is selling poorly and stocks are building.

A report released by China Customs here Thursday said the influx of low-price soybean has had a negative impact on the domestic soybean planting and processing sectors.

The report showed foreign-funded firms' imports of soybeans amounted to 14.15 million tons, up 22.1 percent and representing more than 60 percent of total soybean imports.

Analysts predict that the country's soybean growing area will shrink and output will drop by 2.7 percent to 15.9 million tons in 2006.

The report said foreign-funded companies are highly influential in the soybean processing sector -- they control 40 percent of the country's total soybean processing capacity and up to 80 percent of import sources.

Statistics show China imports 45 percent of its soybean from Brazil, 30 percent from the United States and 23 percent from Argentina.

The alarmist report raised the specter of a stranglehold by foreign companies over soybean resources and warned of a threat to national grain security.

(Xinhua News Agency December 1, 2006)