China promotes R& D in agricultural genetically modified organisms: ministry

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China will support innovative research and development ( R& D) of genetically modified organisms ( GMOs), according to a document published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on Thursday, which analysts said was a move to strengthen food security, especially involving seeds, in China.

As shown in the document, China will support R& D of innovative agricultural GMOs, such as new genes, new technologies and new products.

Wang Gangyi, a professor at Northeast Agricultural University, said that the document actually supports R& D involving seeds – the heart of agriculture. Seeds are as essential in the sector as chips are in the industrial field.

Imported seeds account for only 0.1 percent of crops raised in China, but some varieties of food are more than 90- percent reliant on imports. For example, the import dependence of broccoli reaches 95 percent, according to open data.

“R& D involving new genes and innovations is encouraged to improve the exploration of seeds and the efficiency of planting. Compared with the rest of the world, China’s seed bank is very large, but the utilization rate is low. The main targets are soybeans and corn for feed, through molecular breeding,” Wang said.

He said that soybean output in China is very low due to the lack of water. Even if all of China’s existing arable land were devoted to soybeans, the yield would not be enough to supply the feed needed to raise pigs for pork, making China strongly import- reliant on soybeans and corn.

According to official data, China imported 100.33 million tons of soybeans, up more than 10 million tons year- on- year, which was nearly one- third of global production.

China’s consumption sector saw a robust rebound during the Spring Festival holiday, which gave a huge boost to sales of imported goods, letting the world share the dividends of the booming economy.

From February 4- 15, sales of imported wine on Tmall Global, the cross- border business- toconsumer marketplace under Alibaba Group, soared by 10 times, with British and Japanese whisky, Japanese sake and French brandy becoming popular, data from the platform sent to the Global Times on Thursday showed.

Sales of imported chocolate on Tmall Global jumped this month for Valentine’s Day. Its data showed that sales of imported chocolate increased by 337 percent year- on- year from February 4- 15, with candy made in UAE, Switzerland and Japan among the hottest sellers.

The cargo arm of China Southern Airlines handled 18,000 tons of imported products in January, up 30.37 percent year- on- year, according to the company.

It said that the company’s handling of highvalue goods such as drugs that need to be temperature- controlled and cosmetics soared 450 percent to hit 2,156 tons, setting a record high.

The appreciation of the yuan partially contributed to import growth. Last year, the onshore yuan rose 6.52 percent against the US dollar, according to data provider Wind.

Cross- border cargo logistics are continuing to recover along with the rollout of vaccines. According to China Southern Airlines, the load rate of all returning cargo flights in January exceeded 80 percent, while passenger flights that were converted to cargo flights and passenger flights both ran at almost 100- percent capacity.

Analysts forecast that China will soon surpass the US to become the world’s largest retail market for consumer goods.

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