China is buying more Australian wheat than ever even after diplomatic relations between the two countries frayed in recent years, reports Bloomberg. Australian shipments accounted for 63% of China’s wheat imports in the first 10 months of the year, compared with 28% over the whole of 2021 and just 15% the year before, according to Chinese customs data and Bloomberg calculations.

The booming trade stands out in the wake of deteriorating ties between the countries over issues including a clampdown on foreign investment and as Australia accused China of meddling in its domestic affairs.

They took a nosedive in 2020 after Canberra called for a probe into the origins of Covid-19, infuriating Beijing. China responded with punitive trade penalties targeting Australian commodities from coal to barley, lobsters and wine.

China moved forward with the restructuring and consolidation of two of the country’s biggest state-owned agriculture firms by putting together two join ventures to preside over overlapping businesses, reports Caixin.

State-owned grain giant Cofco Corp and national grain stockpiler China Grain Reserves Group, also known as Sinograin, signed agreements on the ventures last month, according to a report Monday by a media outlet backed by the State Council’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

One of the joint ventures will be a grain storage business to be controlled by Sinograin. The other will be for oilseed crushing and processing controlled by Cofco, according to the report. The new businesses have yet to be officially registered, according to Caixin.

New Hope Group, a Chinese agriculture conglomerate, is mulling over raising around $100 million for a cold-chain logistics business, reports Bloomberg. According to people familiar with the matter, Chengdu-based Fresh Life Cold Chain Logistics is approaching potential industry and private equity investors and is looking for a valuation of over $1 billion.

Deliberations on the fundraising are preliminary and the size and timeline could change, the people said. Representatives for New Hope and Fresh Life didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Founded in 2016, Fresh Life has over 40 subsidiary companies and a fleet serving more than 120,000 stores across China, its website shows. It completed a RMB 600 million ($94 million) series A fundraising round, Fresh Life said in January.

China’s soybean imports are set to slow sharply in late 2021 from a record first-half tally, reported Reuters.

A collapse in hog sector profitability and a sharp rise in wheat feed use are crimping demand in China, where imports this year may now be less than 100 million tonnes, compared with a recent US forecast of 102 million tonnes.

As China accounts for 60% of global soybean imports, its diminished appetite – just as US farmers pull in what is projected to be their third-largest harvest ever – stands to add further volatility to the critical crop, which rallied to nine-year highs this year.

“Soymeal demand is reaching rock bottom. Basis is now at minus RMB 120 (in northern China), lowest this year. Demand might come back up, but it sucks now,” said a manager with a crusher in northern China that processes two cargoes of soybeans on average per month. “We can’t really place orders to make purchases. The volume of US soybean exports will surely be affected.”

China is stepping up efforts to control the spread of African swine fever, restricting the movement of live pigs within designated regions, reported the South China Morning Post.

While the country aims for a full recovery from the pork crisis by midyear, experts warn that this goal could be much further away.

On April 29, the northern region of Inner Mongolia reported the country’s 10th sporadic outbreak of African swine fever, a disease that first erupted in China in August 2018.

Specialist pig veterinary consultant Steven McOrist said the disease had been the most serious problem for China’s hog industry for 50 years, wiping out an estimated half of its pig population in the early days.