China opens to European poultry import market

German Agriculture Minister Julia Kloeckner announced earlier this week that China has agreed to reopen the German poultry import market.

After the outbreak of bird flu in Germany, China has stopped importing German poultry.

Ms. Kloeckner said in a statement after the talks with Chinese Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu in Berlin that "the Chinese side has concluded that there is no reason to pay attention to German poultry."

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The German/Chinese government summit will be held in Berlin this week. China is one of Germany's largest meat export markets, especially pork.

Following the agreement between China and Poland, the bird flu was reopened into the Chinese market due to a two-year ban. Before the ban was implemented, Polish meat producers exported 12,400 tons to China.

The move is when China is dealing with several international poultry problems. The Chinese government has implemented safeguards for Brazilian poultry imports, which has led to the implementation of company-specific import taxes.

Rabobank's recent third quarter report highlighted that the move will affect the amount of Brazilian poultry imports to China.

With the recent threat of US tariffs on goods, China announced that it will impose a series of import taxes on US agricultural products (including soybeans) starting in July. Negotiations are still going on, but if tariffs are implemented, Chinese feed prices will rise. Rabobank believes that traders will start to buy soybeans from Brazil, and Brazil has already suffered from the weakness of the poultry industry.

Directly related to US-China trade tensions is a 25% tariff on US imports of Chinese chicken, further delaying the prospect of US chicken entering the market.