Miller Magazine Issue: 113 May 2019

39 NEWS MAY 2019 U.S.-China deal to boost grain container shipments A deal ending the trade spat between the U.S. and China would boost container shipments of gra- in, wheat and soybeans, according to the head of Japan’s largest container-shipping company. While agricultural goods are typically transported in large volumes by bulk ships, there’s a rising trend toward using containers as they can move smaller quantities more efficiently and without the need for storage fa- cilities, said Jeremy Nixon, chief executive officer of Ocean Network Express Pte. “If there is a breakth- rough in the tariff situation, there’s actually pent-up demand for U.S. exports to China,” Nixon said in an interview published in Bloomberg. A more perma- nent pact could lead to “a return of U.S. exports on a stronger basis to China especially on agricultural products,” he said. The U.S. and China are in negotiations to reach an agreement to end the trade war that has roiled mar- kets and threatened global growth. The spat also led to China buying more soybeans from South America, including Brazil and Argentina. China has said it may agree to purchase an additional $30 billion of U.S. agricultural products a year as part of a possible deal being negotiated, according to people with knowle- dge of the plan in February. BLOOMBERG Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has issued a dec- ree establishing a grain company to replace the state silos, mills and grain buyer (Hoboob), Reuters reports. The headquarters of the new General Organization for Trade, Storage and Grain Processing will be located in the northeastern city of Hasaka and will headed by the country’s internal trade minister. The company will be responsible for trade, storage and processing of grain to cover local consumption and export surplus. The Syrian government has also raised the price it pays farmers for their wheat after the smallest crop in three decades in 2018. Syria will now give farmers 185,000 Syrian pounds ($359.22) per tonne, a nearly 5.7 percent increase from last year’s price, al-Watan newspaper cited the internal trade minister as saying after a cabinet session. Syria is expected to import around 1.5 million tonnes of mainly Russian wheat this year with local wheat procurement expected at around half a million tonnes. War and drought has cut the country’s production by around 30 percent. Syria establishes new state grain company