I’m not going to talk about ginger beef, wantons or chicken fried rice, I want to talk about China’s roll as an agricultural player and how it is affecting our own agricultural sector here in Canada. Now I am not an expert on foreign trade, nor an expert on China. I can’t even call myself an expert on market trends but what has caught my attention in the last several months is what’s happening in China’s agricultural sector and should we in Canada be paying attention? This morning I read a report on how China has slowed down on its imports of potassium (potash) from 6.5 million tones down to an estimated 6 million tones. Who gives a rip, right? Wrong. We should care and we should pay attention. China’s arable land represents 10% of the total arable land in the world. One also must note that 20% of the world’s population is supported off of those acres. China has a large population. If the farmable acres were divided up in a per household basis it would equal out to 1.6 acres per house hold. One other interesting fact is China is the world’s largest producer of agricultural related products and is soon to become the world’s largest importer of agricultural related products. So again, who cares? We all should care. The fact that China has reduced its importing of potash for example translates into a reduction in the price per ton of potash. Why do they need so much potash? After playing around with some calculations and different numbers we came up with the number (which admittedly is not perfectly accurate) of 465 lbs of KCL is being purchased from Canada per acre of cultivated land in China. Let’s remember that they also purchase from Russia and India and also produce the product in their own country. Do they know something that we don’t? Are their soils extremely low in the nutrient? Do their crops demand high amounts of potassium? One can only speculate as to why they demand such high volumes of potassium.

The take home message is that our markets and commodities will likely always be affected by what’s happening in China. They are producing more food on fewer acres and that is impressive. Should we be following their lead and look at our potassium levels and apply the nutrient more liberally? Is potassium being over looked in our nutrient programs and should we be paying more attention to this essential nutrient. My opinion is that we should start addressing potassium levels on our soil tests and give respect where respect is due. So here’s to kung pow chicken and moo goo gai pan.

Happy farming! Lets feed the world!