Monday in China: An egg farm and a meeting at the U.S. Embassy
Commissioner Troxler, left, listens as Yuan Zhengdong, center, deputy general manager of DQY Ecological Farm, explains operations. Dr. Yanming Han, technical director for the American Soybean Association, translates.
Our delegation arrived in China yesterday, and we all appear to have recovered from the long flight. Today we went to work.
This morning, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler and our group met with Yuan Zhengdong, deputy general manager of DQY Ecological Farm. It is the largest single layer farm in Asia, with about 2 million chickens producing 1.5 million eggs a day. DQY was founded in 2000, construction began in 2002, and the farm opened in 2004. The farm supplies fresh eggs to China’s supermarkets and processes eggs for use in restaurants.
DQY also captures methane gas produced on the farm and converts it to electricity, which is used to power the facility. The farm also has greenhouses for growing organic vegetables, and a feed mill for making chicken feed.
The farm uses corn and soybean in its feed. It gets 65 percent of its corn from local growers, but 100 percent of its soybean meal is from U.S. soybeans.
China’s expanding economy — even in the midst of a global recession, China’s economy grew an estimated 9 percent last year — has created a growing middle class that is incorporating more protein into its diet. Three hundred billion eggs are eaten in China every year. Rising demand for eggs and meat will mean opportunities for N.C. farmers. Soybean growers will find greater demand for their crop, while pork and poultry producers can find new export opportunities for their animals.
After leaving the farm, we returned to Beijing for a meeting with the agricultural staff at the U.S. Embassy. William Westman, the top U.S. ag trade official in Beijing, informed us of the things his staff is doing to open more agricultural trade possibilities in China. It was interesting to hear the many issues that Westman and the rest of the Embassy staff are working on.
Here’s an interesting fact from the briefing: Even though China leads the world in the production of many commodities, such as rice, soybeans and cotton, it still needs to import many of these same commodities from other countries to meet its own demand. North Carolina already is finding opportunities in China, and this week we are looking for more.
Tomorrow, Commissioner Troxler will be meeting with Commissioner Jiang, the head of China’s state-run tobacco company. This is a great opportunity for North Carolina, as Commissioner Troxler will focus on how our farmers can help meet China’s demand for tobacco. Other members of our delegation will be meeting with current and potential customers for North Carolina soybeans and cotton.
Tuesday in China: Tobacco, soybean, cotton meetings
We had a busy day in China, with our group splitting up to cover three commodities: tobacco, soybeans and cotton.
I met with Commissioner Jiang Chenkeng, the head of China’s State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, and several members of his staff.
Commissioner Jiang said his company is interested in high-quality leaf, and North Carolina farmers can certainly deliver that. (Like I always say, “When you want the best, it’s Got to Be NC!”) His company is interested in long-term planning and continuing to develop the relationship with North Carolina in a way that benefits us both.
It really was a great visit, and I came away from the meeting confident that North Carolina and China can strengthen our trade relationship for tobacco.
In the afternoon, we toured the Beijing Cigarette Factory, which produces about 20 billion cigarettes a year. Forty percent of Chinese production of American-blend cigarettes occurs at this factory.
Other members of our delegation visited an aquaculture research farm that is studying the use of soy protein concentrate as feed for several species of freshwater fish, including black carp. China is the world’s largest aquaculture producer, and researchers believe soy-based feed can hold the key to the sustainability of this industry.
More demand for soy-based fish and animal feeds could open up all sorts of opportunities for North Carolina soybean farmers. Our soybeans are higher in oil and protein than those grown in other U.S. states. Our port in Wilmington and ability to ship containerized soybeans give North Carolina a niche in the export business. Later this week, we’ll be promoting this at a soybean conference in Guangzhou with some of China’s largest soybean buyers.
Our cotton delegation also was busy today, meeting with officials from China Cotton Association, Sinocot and Chinatex. I am told they explored a variety of topics related to N.C. cotton and its future in the Chinese market.
This evening, we hosted a dinner for Chinese customers of North Carolina tobacco, soybeans, cotton and poultry. It was encouraging to see so many of our customers come out. My thanks to the Tobacco Trust Fund Commission, N.C. Farm Bureau, N.C. Soybean Producers Association and Burley Stabilization Corp. for sponsoring the event.
Tomorrow, we leave Beijing for Kunming, which is in southwestern China. There I will sign an agreement of mutual understanding with agriculture officials from the Yunnan Province. I’m very interested in seeing this province, because it produces a lot of the same commodities we do in North Carolina.
Wednesday in China: A flight delayed, an agreement signed
Commissioner Troxler signs an agreement of understanding with Deputy Director-General Zhang Zhize of the Yunnan Department of Agriculture and Sen. Bob Atwater.
Wednesday was a travel day, as we left Beijing for Kunming in southwestern China. Wednesday also brought our first slight departure from the schedule, as our flight was delayed more than an hour. We made it to Kunming just in time for the ceremony marking the signing of our agreement of mutual understanding with the Yunnan Department of Agriculture.
Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler, Deputy Director-General Zhang Zhize and Sen. Bob Atwater signed the agreement. Afterward, we celebrated the agreement over a dinner of Chinese cuisine. (Our thanks to the Tobacco Trust Fund Commission, N.C. Farm Bureau, N.C. Soybean Producers Association, Burley Stabilization Corp. and N.C. Agribusiness Council for their support of this event.)
The agreement represents the beginning of a dialogue between the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the Yunnan Department of Agriculture about ways the two can work together to benefit agriculture in both regions. Like North Carolina, Yunnan Province is a major tobacco producer. Yunnan also produces cut flowers, sugar cane and potatoes, among other crops.
Tomorrow, Yunnan officials will lead us on a tour of some area farms and a local cigarette factory. Tomorrow night, we fly to Guangzhou, where we will take part in a soybean conference on Friday morning before heading by train to Hong Kong to meet with more N.C. ag customers.
UPDATED: Now that I’m back in North Carolina and no longer prevented from uploading to YouTube, I’ve added video of the signing ceremony.
Thursday in China: A long and interesting day
Commissioner Troxler stands with Chinese tobacco farmer Hong Pinghua.
Wednesday, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler signed a memorandum of understanding with the Yunnan Department of Agriculture. On Thursday, we began putting the agreement into action. We visited three farming operations in the Shilin area of the province.
Local agricultural leaders, including Kunming City Agriculture Director Guo Huan Bo, led our tour into the province’s agricultural region, which is somewhat mountainous. We saw many instances of corn or other crops growing on steep slopes.
Our first stop was Wen’s Farm, which raises pigs and chickens. From the description given by the farm managers, it is similar to a farmers’ cooperative, with farmers from the area contributing to it. Wen’s was founded in the 1980s when eight families each invested 1,000 RMB or yuan (China’s currency). Under the current exchange rate, that’s about equal to $150 U.S. dollars. For a Chinese farming family, that was a significant amount.
Next up was a tobacco farm that provides leaf for Kunming Cigarette Factory. Commissioner Troxler felt right at home talking with the farm’s production leader, Hong Pinghua. About 400 people work on the 1,300-acre farm, producing a local brand of leaf known as Yunnan 87.
Our final stop in Shilin was an ecological farm operated by Yunnan Wanjiahuan Food Group. The farm has a goat breeding facility that focuses on the sustainability of the province’s native goat breed. The farm has about 1,700 goats. The farm also produces organic fruits, such as blueberries, pears, peaches, apples and nectarines.
Mr. Gao of the YDA said the farm provides a general picture of Yunnan’s agricultural development. Planned investment in the farm is about 680 yuan, or about $100 million U.S. dollars. Commissioner Troxler said the farm “is a great asset to China.”
The farm’s ownership wants to organize a trip to the United States this fall. Commissioner Troxler invited the delegation to come to North Carolina and see examples of agricultural research. He even invited the group to the N.C. State Fair.
Troxler was impressed by the farm and the willingness of the provincial leaders to engage in dialogue. “There are many areas of potential cooperation,” he said.
The staff of the farm prepared us a lunch featuring some of the farm’s products. We also were treated to singing from a group of young members of one of the region’s minority populations. They were dressed in coloroful native costumes.
After lunch, we returned to Kunming to tour the cigarette facility. We saw German-made machines rolling and packaging more than 13,000 cigarettes per minute. That’s more than 600 packs in a single minute. The rapid speed of processing is understandable when you consider there are 330 million smokers in China.
Members of our delegation’s tobacco team stayed behind in Kunming to meet with customers, while the rest of us headed to the airport for a flight to Guangzhou. As it turned out, the flight was delayed several hours, and we arrived in Guangzhou at 1 a.m. local time.
Our soybean team has organized a conference for customers there Friday. Commissioner Troxler will speak at the conference in the morning before heading by train to Hong Kong to host a lunch with N.C. ag customers in that city.
Saturday, we head home.
China trade mission wraps up
Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler’s agricultural trade mission to China wrapped up over the weekend. Friday, he spoke at a soybean conference in Guangzhou, then headed to Hong Kong to host a lunch for buyers of N.C. ag products.
The soybean conference was well attended, and generated new leads for N.C. soybean producers. The conference gave our marketing folks and representatives of the N.C. Soybean Producers Association the opportunity to inform potential buyers of North Carolina’s high-protein soybeans and the ability to load them into containers for shipping out of Wilmington.
The lunch in Hong Kong was attended by representatives of companies that buy tobacco, pork and poultry. It was an opportunity to say thank you to existing customers and build those relationships for the future. (We want to thank William Chu of the N.C. Commerce Department’s Asia office for his assistance in setting up the lunch — and for helping get us through Hong Kong immigration in time to make it to the lunch.)
A poultry seller works in his shop at the Tsai Kok Tsui Market in Hong Kong.
After the lunch, we got a look at a local supermarket that sells U.S. agricultural products. Located in a mall, the market reminded me of Fresh Market or Whole Foods. It had a definite upscale atmosphere, which makes sense in Hong Kong, the world’s leader in per capita ownership of Rolls Royces.
After that, we toured a “wet market.” The markets were so-named because the vendors used to wash down their booths at night. Concerns about sanitation and food-borne pathogens have led Hong Kong officials to begin modernizing the wet market.
The Tai Kok Tsui Market takes up several floors of a new municipal building. One floor is devoted to meats (chicken, seafood, poultry, beef … even live frogs). It also has what is known as a “poultry boutique,” where you can pick out a live chicken, then wait while it is slaughtered and prepared for you to take home. Live chickens are kept separate from the processing and sales area.
The second floor features a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, and the third floor features a cafe that cooks food bought from the vendors below.
In Hong Kong, space is a premium, and many residents don’t have room for large refrigerators. So they shop for their food almost daily, buying fresh fruits, vegetables and cuts of meat. That makes markets such as this one popular with the locals.
We’d like to thank Anita Katial and Chris Li of the U.S. Agricultural Trade Office in Hong Kong for setting up the market tour. We’d also like to thank Hong Kong city officials for their generosity in spending time with us.
Saturday, we packed up for the long flight home.
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