China aims to cut soybean meal use in animal feed to 10% by 2030

China is steadily reducing its reliance on foreign soybeans. To curb imports and improve national food security, the world’s largest soybean buyer has said in recent years it will significantly reduce the use of soybean meal in livestock feed, Reuters reports.

China consumes at least 100 million tonnes of soybeans a year. Almost all of them are processed into a protein-rich feed ingredient, mainly for the country’s pig herd, the world’s largest. Beijing said on Tuesday it aims to cut the use of soybean meal in animal feed to 10% by 2030, down from 13% in 2023 and 18% in 2017.

But China still relies heavily on foreign soybean supplies, with importers expecting record consumption in the April-June period due to the arrival of a giant crop from Brazil.

China’s ongoing plan to reduce soybean meal in feed has been reported intermittently since at least 2018. At the time, Chinese pigs typically ate feed containing about 20% soybean meal and 70-75% corn. A 2022 report from the Chinese ministry said the proportion of soybean meal in feed had fallen to 15.3% in 2021 from 17.8% in 2017. This saved a total of 11 million tonnes of soybean meal, equivalent to about 14 million tonnes of soybeans, according to the ministry.

In April 2023, Beijing proposed a soybean meal standard of below 13% in feed for 2025. Analysts at the time suggested that this could reduce soybean imports to 82 million tons by 2025, well below China’s current 2024/25 estimate of 94.6 million tons.

The USDA, however, projects China’s soybean imports in 2024/25 to be more than 109 million tons, suggesting that China is underreporting its meal consumption. Last year, the agency began using global exporter data to estimate Chinese soybean demand instead of Chinese customs data because shipments were significantly higher than China’s reported consumption.

Tags: China, soybean meal