NEWS
China shuts plants due to soyabean shortage Crushing plants in China have shut down or are planning to suspend operations due to a soyabean shortage, industry sources were reported as saying by AgriCensus. Bunge halted operations at its crushing plants in Tianjin for 49 days from 14 February to 3 April, while the company’s plants in Nanjing had issued notices to shut down for almost one month from late February to March, the 18 February report said. Shutdowns would also take place at Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC)'s operations in Tianjin, northern China, and Cargill’s
operations in Hebei province. According to a 18 February report by China’s industry consultancy Mysteel, many crushing plants in the southern province of Guangxi also have plans to shut down. AgriCensus wrote that import costs for soyabeans paid by Chinese crushers had climbed as weather concerns over the outcome of South American crops had boosted rising CBOT soyabean futures and spot premiums in Brazil’s market. Chinese buyers have had to slow their rate of soyabean purchases from glob-
al markets, particularly for crops in the current marketing year. Some Chinese soyabean processors had also cancelled orders for around 10 to 12 cargoes of Brazilian soyabeans in February, the report said. Slow importing and pre-Lunar New Year holiday consumption had led to low domestic soyabean stocks, AgriCensus wrote. According to data from China’s National Grain and Oil Information Centre (CNGOIC), soyabean stocks in mid-February totalled 3.95M tonnes, 1.5M tonnes lower than at the same point last year.
Plantations in Malaysia to get foreign workers Oil palm plantations in Malaysia are expecting a new group of workers to arrive from overseas in May and June to harvest oil palm fruits, Today Online reported on 8 March. “With foreign labour coming in, I hope production will increase from 18.1M tonnes (last year) to 20M tonnes,” Plantation Industries minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said. About 80% of Malaysia's plantation workers are migrants, the majority from neighbouring Indonesia, according to the report. Malaysia's oil palm plantations had faced a worsening labour shortage since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic due to border curbs preventing migrant workers from entering the country, Today Online wrote. In September, authorities approved the recruitment of 32,000 migrant workers for palm plantations, with Indonesian migrant workers originally expected to arrive in mid-February, the report said. However, analysts were sceptical that the new workforce could be ready in time. “Even if they (workers) arrive, it will take time for training, as you're not looking necessarily at skilled workers," Julian McGill, the Southeast Asia head at UK consultancy LMC International told Reuters. The shortage of workers had affected production in Malaysia – the world's second largest palm oil producer – adding to global worries over vegetable oil supplies, Today Online wrote. www.ofimagazine.com
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