China boosted its soybean production by 13% in 2019 amid a trade war with No. 2 supplier the United States, official data showed on Friday, helping it record a slight rise in total food crop output.
According to Reuters, soybean production jumped to 18.1 million tonnes, the National Bureau of Statistics said, with the area devoted to the oilseed rising 11% after Beijing began offering generous subsidies to farmers to grow the beans.
Locally grown soybeans are used mainly in food, but are still dwarfed by imports that are crushed into meal to feed the country’s huge livestock herd.
