Importers expect no disruption to China's corn supply

Lead: Seoul, Dec 11: South Korean Importers expect that even after China's accession to the world trade organization, although it will be forced to reduce subsidies to corn exporters, China's corn supply to South Korea will change little South Korea is the second largest corn importer in Asia after Japan RM2 South Korean traders quoted well-informed people from China Jilin grain group and COFCO as saying that in order to maintain price competitiveness and share in the Korean market, China may design new subsidies or provide assistance to farmers after accession to the world trade organization Cereals and COFCO are two government authorized corn exporters RM2 a trader told Reuters that China will try to maintain its market share in South Korea because it is more profitable to export corn to South Korea than to sell it in South China Traders also said China has enough stocks of old corn to meet South Korean demand next year South Korean feed producers are more willing to purchase cheaper Chinese corn, while South Korean food corn importers are concerned about quality and often exclude Chinese corn from bidding South Korea imported more than 5.3 million tons of corn for feed production between January and October, down from nearly 5.6 million tons in the same period last year, according to kotis Of these, about 2.4 million tons are from China, more than 2.2 million tons are from the United States, and the rest are from other countries In terms of corn for human consumption, South Korea imported nearly 1.9 million tons of corn, compared with 1.7 million tons in the same period last year Among them, South Korea purchased 788800 tons from the United States, 536000 tons from Brazil, 249000 tons from Argentina and 220100 tons from China This week, South Korea will look for corn and wheat, and the national agricultural cooperation Federation (NACF) plans to bid for 155000 tons of corn and 12000 tons of wheat bran for feed production The bidding deadline is 0600 GMT RM2: this bidding is divided into two batches, one is two ships, each of which is 52500 tons, which will arrive in March and April respectively The other batch is four ships, each of which is 12500 tons, made in China and delivered in March Kocopia is likely to hold a new bidding later this week or early next week On Friday, due to the high price offered by the seller, kocopia did not buy 105000 tons of corn in the bidding The production area is optional, except for China's corn The corn bidding is also divided into two ships of 52500 tons, which arrived in March In the flour milling wheat market, two Korean companies, Dong ah flour processing plant Co., Ltd and Cheil jedang Co., Ltd., plan to purchase 20000 to 21000 tons of U.S No.1 wheat through bidding, which will be shipped to Incheon port at the end of January Daehan flour processing plant, another flour milling wheat importer, is expected to hold a tender later this week or early next week to buy about 21000 tons of us No 1 wheat, due in February Rm2