China’s agriculture ministry has issued a three-year action plan to reduce the inclusion rates of soybean meal in animal feed in an effort to reduce the country’s dependence on soybean imports. According to a Reuters report, the new plan calls for soybean meal inclusion in animal feed to be reduced to less than 13% by 2025 from 14.5% in 2022.
The plan would “guide the feed industry to reduce the amount of soybean meal, promote the saving and consumption reduction of feed grains, and contribute to ensuring the stable and safe supply of grain and important agricultural products”, according to the document, published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Similar guidelines were already published in April 2021, recommending a reduction in the amount of corn and soybean meal in pig and poultry feed. The guidelines also recommended feed formulations based on the country’s regions, such as reducing corn in pig rations by at least 15% in the Northeast using rice and rice bran, and using sorghum, cassava flour, rice bran meal and barley in the southern region. China’s soybean imports in March were up 7.9% year-on-year, as Chinese buyers stocked up ahead of expected strong demand. Imports in the first three months of the year totalled 23 million tonnes, up 13.5% from a year earlier, the data showed. Much larger volumes are expected in the coming months, according to traders and analysts, but demand has proven weaker than expected.
