Hay Exports To China

Hay Exports To China

Susan Allen
Susan Allen
Welcome I'm Susan Allen, so where does the majority of our beautiful Northwest alfalfa and Timothy end up? Here to answer that question is WSU's hay specialist Dr. Steven Norberg. NORBERG: China is our most rapidly growing market for hay. We exported 1.13 million tons in 2015 to China and the tons of hay exported grew by 24 percent over what was exported in 2014. And it continues to grow amazingly even with the GMO challenges, the strong dollar, and slow port downs that we experienced some of last year. The growth of the market has slowed a little bit compared to the last five years when it grew 500%, and it was actually 300 fold in the last ten years. Some of that huge jump is easy to describe because 10 years ago there was almost no hay imported into China so this is just a dramatic change.

So do they take Timothy and Alfalfa?

NORBERG: Most of the hay exported to China is alfalfa for the dairy market

He said China has surpassed Japan today for Alfalfa exported. Also that China is pickier than Japan when it comes to GMO issues.

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