Gap in China’s Soybean Trade Casts Doubt on Data Reliability
- China’s import numbers do not match with data from exporters
- Difference big enough that USDA has stopped using China’s data
Soybean harvest.
Photographer: Rory Doyle/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Doubts over the reliability of China’s economic figures are swirling again — this time in soybean trade as the world’s top importer has been publishing data that are increasingly diverging from other estimates.
Official data from China showed it imported more than 96 million tons of soybeans last year from Brazil and the US, the world’s biggest exporters. But data from those two nations show more than 101 million tons left their shores for China.