BEIJING, Aug 26 Asia Pulse - It is expected that China's oil crops supplywill be sufficient in the 2004/2005 year, and the supply of edible oil mayeven go surplus.

As a result, market price of oil crops and edible oil in China mayfluctuate downward in the next few months, the agricultural departmentpredicts.

For oil crops, there is an increase in the output of rapeseed, while theoutput of soybean, peanuts and cottonseed is also rising.

Add to this moderate imports, and the oil crop supply will be sufficientin China this year.

China is expected to consume 16.5 million tons of edible oil in 2004/2005,up 8.5 per cent year-on-year.

China's edible oil import increased sharply in 2003/2004, and the importmay continue to grow this year. China will introduce new edible oilstandards starting from October 1, 2004, and this may, to certain extent,curb soybean import from South America.

The current situation of oil crop production in China is as follows:

- China has sowed 14.66 million hectares of land to oil crops this year,equal to the area in 2003. If everything goes well, Chinas oil cropsoutput may grow rehabilitatively to hit a record high of 11.9 million tonsthis year, up 9 per cent year on year.

- China's import of edible increased, while that of oil crops dropped inthe first half of this year.

Customs statistics show that China imported 8.94 million tons of soybeanin the first half, down 11.9 per cent year-on-year; and 252,000 tons ofrapeseed, as against 3.67 million tons import in the same period of 2003.Meanwhile, China exported 356,000 tons of peanuts in the period, down 22.1per cent.

Imports of edible oil was 3.35 million tons in the period, up 69 per cent.To be specific, palm oil import was 1.73 million tons, up 21.5 per cent;soybean oil, 1.38 million tons, up 1.7-fold; rapeseed oil, 220,000 tons,up 4.8-fold.