The government highlighted four main factors that attributed to the figures. It said that the growth of competitive produce proved to be quicker during the period, which was further boosted by the fact there was widespread price growth.

Although recent growth has been affected by falling grain output and bird flu, the government also pointed out that the results were boosted by the fact that grain prices grew significantly and that the recovery from bird flu has been rapid.

China has greatly liberalised its trade in the course of the last ten years. Part of this has been an attempt to maintain a greater flow of food products to feed its burgeoning 1.3 billion population. As far as food commodities go, the countries farmers have had varying degrees of success in increasing soyabean and wheat crops, whilst corn has become a major export commodity.

Thailand: Chicken on credit

The Thai government is urging its chicken exporters to offer foreign importers credit facilities in an effort to help rebuild the market as it tries to recover from the effects of bird flu.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has urged Thai ambassadors in several key markets to hold talks with countries governments to make them aware of the possibilities that Thai chicken exporters are now able to offer. The credit lines will take the form of barter agreements that are aimed to prop up the market again after a fresh outbreak of bird flu was announced in the country last month.

Bird flu is expected to lead to poultry production in the course of 2004 compared to last year. In 2003 production stood at 517,000 tons, but many analysts believe that 200,000 tons might be an optimistic figure for production in 2004.

Texchem profits on burgeoning food business

Malaysian trading company Texchem Group says it remains confident about the future performance of its food business following good second quarter results.

According to Bernama Newswire, the company said the group's reported that both its packaging segment and its food division showed positive growth, helping to contribute to a revenue of MYR145.2 million (€31.7m) in the second quarter.

In the coming year the group has pledged to strengthen its seafood processing capabilities in both Asia and Europe. The company specialises in the production of sushi seafoods and earlier this year announced its plan to invest €10 million to open a processing plant in western Europe.