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Korea’s overall demand for beef and pork in 2022 will remain steady and could improve in the second half of the year with a reopening of its restaurant sector. However, Covid-related restrictions continue to limit Korea’s Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional businesses where meat is heavily consumed.

The Philippines is the largest market for U.S. soybean meal (SBM) and a top coconut oil exporter. The country is also a major palm oil market for neighboring ASEAN countries. The loosening of COVID-related restrictions and the corresponding economic rebound are expected to support greater demand for soybean meal.

Taiwan’s soybean imports are projected to reach 2.63 and 2.65 MMT in MY2021/22 and MY 2022/23. Soybean import demand will be buoyed by steady feed demand as well as exports and demand for soybean oil. In MY 2020/21, Taiwan’s COVID-19 control restrictions in Q2-Q3 had some negative impact on demand from the HRI sector, especially for soybean oil and palm oil which are favored in commercial use.

Marketing Year (MY) 2022/23 soybean imports are expected to increase 5 percent from a slow import growth in MY2021/22, driven by the recovery in hotel and food service sector. Palm oil production in MY2021/22 and MY2022/23 is expected to continue the upward trend.

This report provides trade data on Vietnam's monthly rice exports by grade and destination and weekly export quotes for rice by grade.

Higher downstream demand for textiles and garments and reduced cotton yarn imports are expected to raise spinning demand for cotton in marketing year (MY) 22/23, lifting cotton imports to an estimated 2.3 million metric tons (MMT).

The government reduced the biodiesel mandatory blend rate from 10 percent to 7 percent in 2022. However, the current blend rates during February 5 – March 31, 2022, were set in range with a minimum of B5 for diesel fuel to help curb retail prices of diesels.

In MY 2021/22, profit margins of Japanese soybean crushing surpassed those of canola crushing. Meanwhile, as hotel, restaurant, and institutional service industries (HRI) began to recover from the effects of the COVID pandemic, demand for soybean oil spiked as canola oil demand dropped with less home cooking than during the peak crisis period.

FAS/Seoul projects Korea’s corn imports and consumption to increase in 2022/23 to support anticipated growth in animal inventories, following an expected decrease in corn imports in 2021/22 due to the war in Ukraine. Korean wheat consumption in 2022/23 is forecast to decline 15 percent due to reduced feed wheat supply.

FAS Bangkok (Post) forecasts marketing year (MY) 2022/23 cotton imports slightly larger than MY2021/22 in line with the global economic recovery and anticipated rising demand from key foreign trade partners. There has been a significant increase of imported cotton in MY2021/22 due to foreign customers’ pent-up demand for both textile and garment products from the previous years.

Despite ongoing high demand, Post estimates that U.S. cotton exports to Vietnam will decline by 25 percent in marketing year (MY) 21/22 due to price volatility, ongoing logistical challenges, and tough competition from Australia. Post forecasts Vietnam cotton imports for MY22/23 will increase 5 percent to approximately 8.2 million bales or about 1.78 million metric tons (MMT).

Despite being a small country, New Zealand is a major exporter of food and beverage products, and many of these products are manufactured in-country requiring inputs imported from other suppliers. The United States is a key source of ingredients including pork, lactose, tree nuts, hops and other products. The United States also supplies ingredients for animal feed.