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Edible oil prices fall
By Hao Zhou (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-09-09 15:52 In June this year, China successively lowered tariffs on imported vegetable oils and removed tax rebates on exports of 20 varieties of vegetable oil products, which helped curb edible oil exports and increased domestic supply of cooking oils. "National macro-management and central state-owned enterprise's price cut contributed to stabilizing domestic edible oil prices," said Wang Ruiyuan, chairman of the oil branch of the Chinese Cereals and Oils Association. However, foreign food groups still have a large role in deciding prices in China as they control big stakes in the Chinese cooking oil market. Statistics suggest that 64 out of 90 large soybean processing enterprises are exclusively or partly funded by foreign ventures, and their actual processing capacity exceeds 50 million tons annually, accounting for 85 percent of China’s total. The US-based Cargill Group alone has a 50 percent stake of the Chinese edible oil market, which was troubling for price stability in the edible oil markets and the soybean oil market in particular, said Li Guoxiang, researcher with the Agriculture Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. As a result, the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner, has urged soybean production and development of the soybean processing industry to reduce reliance on imports. China's CPI, a main inflation gauge, has been above 4 percent since June last year due to surging food prices, reaching a 12-year-high of 8.7 percent in February this year. But CPI growth eased to 6.3 percent in July year on year, compared with the 7.1 percent in June and 7.7 percent in May. (For more biz stories, please visit Industries)
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