BEIJING, July 13 (Xinhua): China's trade deficit in agricultural products rocketed 14.3 times on the year-earlier level to 7.57 billion US dollars in the first five months of this year, sources with the ministry of agricuture said today.
Foreign trade in agricultural products amounted to 39.93 billion US dollars in the five-month period, a growth of 36.1 per cent year-on-year.The total included 16.18 billion dollars in export value, up 12.2 per cent, and 23.75 billion dollars in import value, up 59.2 per cent.
The five months saw the nation's net cereal exports decline drastically and trade deficit in animal by-products increase rapidly.
Between January and May, China exported 1.19 million tons of cereals, down 76.6 per cent from the year-earlier level, but imported 911,000 tons, up 14.2 per cent. The net exports stood at 276,000 tons, down 93.5 per cent.
In the five months, 1.65 billion US dollars worth of animal by-products were sold abroad nationwide, up 10 per cent, while 3.28 billion dollars worth were imported, up 35.9 per cent. The trade deficit was 1.63 billion dollars, up 78.6 per cent.
Meanwhile, the country imported 3.58 million tons of edible vegetable oil, up 11.2 per cent. The total included 1.13 million tons of soybean oil, up 7.6 per cent, 98,000 tons of rapeseed oil, down 12.8 per cent, and 2.33 million tons of palm oil, up 17.1 per cent.
