China: a victim of trade wars?

CHINA - If the Chinese government gives in to mounting international pressure to revalue its currency, it could spell the end of cheap exports, a move that many anticipate would have a knock-on effect on raw materials costs for the food industry. But China may prove to be a less ready victim of western bullying than some expect.

Since China opened up to Western trade, the food ingredients sector, like other industries, has been growing apace and exerting price pressure on the same products supplied by US and European companies. In the past decade alone, the Chinese food ingredients sector has seen a ten-fold increase in business.

The functional food industry in China, for example, is turning over US$200m per year.

China has long been accused of keeping the yuan artificially low to gain a trade advantage... which has made its trading partners maintain that a solution to the world's woes would be a more flexible Chinese currency and so a less competitive China.

Source: Food Production Daily