Study On Potato Trade In China

At present, one of the most serious problems the world concerned is the food securityinfluenced by soaring grain price, which leads to a very substantial increase in hunger andmakes the low-priced tubers become increasingly important in the food consumption.Potatoes stand out as one of the most vital food security crops because they are rich innutrition, including starch, vitamin, sugar, proteins, etc.2008International Year of Potatoesconference insisted that potatoes should be grouped in the global food security system and inthis way they can play a sizeable role in guaranteeing the food safety and reducing the burdenof poverty. To a certain extent, potato trades relates to the food security of China, a nationwith biggest output of potatoes. It becomes more significant to develop potato industry inChina, which has a large population with relatively little arable land.Since potato industry chain is competitively long and usually has obvious economicbenefits, it has been recognized as a major industry to promote the local economicdevelopment. The planting areas of potatoes in China are mainly distributed in the north andsouthwest region, followed by the central region and the south region. Cold mountainsclimate is especially suitable for the growth of potatoes. Hence, the local people regardpotatoes as the main food source to rely on in the west region of China, where is inappropriateto plant other crops. In this way, potatoes production becomes the leading food industry andmakes a significant contribution to the local economic development in west.Since that the value-added potential of potatoes processing is magnificent, usually15to20times and that the applications are radically expended, potatoes industry makes adifference in increasing agricultural production and farmers’ income. The potatoes industry inChina today is boosted: the development stage is transferred from quantitative outspread torelatively steady upgrade in quality and continuing innovation. Due to the fact that the potatotrade is a working method to prolong the potato industry chain and is a way to gain largeeconomic benefits, my research chooses the potato trade of China as the subject. Based on theinvestigation and the collection of data and information, this dissertation systematicallyconducted the research on the potato trade of China by using various research methodscomprehensively. First, in order to set a basis for the background of the research of potato trade, the dissertation concludes the development of the potato industry, analysis the originand outspread of potatoes, and emphasizes their localization and economic status. Second,this paper analyzes the supply and demand situation in the potato market of China. Then, thisresearch conducts systematic analysis on the export dominance and competitiveness as well asthe import of the potato trade of China. Afterwards, it describes the factors influencing thepotato trade of China and makes a prediction about the development of potato trade. At last, inthe frame of the analysis conducted before and the foreign experience in potato trades, thisdissertation offers several advices to the potato trade of China.The systematic research on international trade of potatoes leads to the followingconclusions:1. Potatoes brought by missionaries in Ming and Qing dynasties has alreadybecome the main crop in mountainous areas of China and largely distributed in the westregion, where the economic is relatively poor and a large number of impoverished peoplereside. Hence, How to increase farmers’ income and get prosperous has been a main issuefaced by those mountainous areas.2. In the economic sphere, the production and consumptionof potatoes is expressed as the supply and demand of potatoes. The production in the domesticmarket is the main source of the supply of potatoes in China and that the rest relies on theimport from the foreign markets. The demand of potatoes in China consists of the domesticdemand market as well as the export demand market. By using time series model to predictthe supply and the demand of China’s potato in the year of2015,2020,2025, that thedomestic supply will reach1809.96,2023.28,2236.60tons respectively,and the domesticdemand will reach1803.48,2016.08,2228.68tons respectively.And China’s potato supply anddemand is rising from the long term.3. The structure of potato trade of China lies at thelow-end. Those potatoes for export are usually primary products. While, those importedpotatoes are usually processed products. Relatively speaking, the export of Chinese potatoescarries certain advantages and competitiveness, which shows up as the absolute advantage inproduction and the competitive advantage in price. The quality of potato productions ishopefully to be improved further, but those advantages normally stem from endowment ofresources. The production of potatoes in China is largely dependant on the import because ofthe low processing ability and the significant demand of processed goods. Differences ofagriculture policies in other counties, strict technical barriers to trade, and high tariffs inseveral counties are all factors that influence the potato trade of China. By conducting Xefficiency on domestic potato production, the dissertation can draw the conclusion that thesupply of productive potatoes has a promising future. A large part of potato-planting regionsin China has a big chance to be upgraded except for those areas where have already arrived attheir optimal production point. The demand of processed potatoes in the domestic market is competitively large and that several processed potatoes have already turn trade deficits.5.China is recommended to borrow ideas of potato industry development from developedcounties and upgrade the degree of potato production industrialization, cut the cost and usethe leverage of economy of scale by building agriculture industry clusters. Duringinternational trades, China is supposed to pay more attention to the expending of the marketand make a full use of international rules to improve the competitiveness power of thepotatoes industry in China. At the same time, some regions in China are suggested to learn thesuccessful experiences from the relatively advanced regions in China. With the importantguidance of government and the help from industry associations, those areas mentioned aboveshould emphasize on the technical innovation and exploit their own advantages to improvethe whole benefits of potato industry, guarantee the food security of China, increase thefarmers’ income and make contributions to the sustainable development of those local areas.