Taiwan's strong demand for American soybeans

Lead: Washington: Taiwan's demand for U.S soybeans is still strong, although the current situation of agricultural trade between the United States and China is unclear and U.S soybean exports are facing more fierce competition due to the fall in South American soybean prices, an official from the U.S Department of Agriculture said in a report released on Thursday The U.S soybean market share in Taiwan was 85% in the year of 00-01, and it will remain at this level in the years of 01-02 and 02-03 The soybean import volume of Taiwan in the year of 00-01 was 3% lower than that of the previous year, which was mainly due to the reduction of the consumption of meat by the residents due to the economic downturn and the reduction of the import quota of pork and poultry products due to the accession to the WTO In the past few years, representatives of Taiwan's soybean crushing industry have visited China for market cooperation with mainland oilseed crushers Taiwan's crushers found that the supply of soybeans to the Chinese market was limited On the other hand, it is impossible for Chinese crushers to provide products to Taiwan's feed and oil markets, because they will face competition from Taiwan's highly concentrated crushing industry Taiwan currently prohibits the import of soybeans and bean products from mainland China However, Taiwan may lift the ban on importing soybeans from the mainland in the near future, because the local soybean food industry requires Taiwan institutions to allow the import of organic soybeans from the mainland According to industry reports, China provided 50000 tons of organic soybeans to South Korea and Japan in 2001 The soybean food industry points out that Canadian and Australian food grade soybeans are competitive with American soybeans in price, but American soybeans have better quality Taiwan's soybean consumption of non genetically modified food may increase after the implementation of the compulsory bioengineering food labeling system on January 1, 2003.