Robert L. Wallack, Beijing, AJOTIn June, the Dragon Boat Festival is one of four annual traditional celebrations and public holidays in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) which also marks mid-year in the economic calendar. Agriculture products are an important part of the Dragon Boat Festival by the tasty “zongzi” (rice dumplings) which are prepared by glutinous rice and pork pieces wrapped in a bamboo leaf. United States (U.S.) agriculture shipments of grain (corn, wheat, soybeans) to China are a bright export indicator to satisfy the growing consumer appetite for less traditional products such as beef. The U.S. has the world’s most productive farmers that grow and export agriculture products such as corn a grain used to feed livestock of pigs, cattle (meat and dairy) and poultry. In China, urbanization and increasing incomes are bringing more meat and dairy products to the tables of consumers. However, inflation pressures and poor weather conditions are offsetting some of the demand in China, but creating opportunities for the U.S. and other competing foreign agriculture producers to increase grain supplies in China. United States’ farmer acreage is also harvesting corn for ethanol production and inventories are lower with prices per bushel more than double from a year earlier at $7.8 a bushel, according to the Wall Street Journal. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports that China surpassed Canada as the number one destination for U.S. agriculture exports of $17.5 billion in 2010 up from $11.2 billion in 2009 with forecasts of exports in 2011 to China at $20 billion or $1.5 billion over total exports to Canada. Number three export market Mexico was up thirteen percent in 2010 at $14.6 billion. United States West Coast ports are answering the demand in China and other North Asia agriculture markets by increasing grain terminal capacities. Delivery time to markets is essential in the face of looming competition from Russia and other agriculture producing nations. Also, U.S. farmers can capitalize on the depreciated value of the dollar that makes U.S. exports more attractive to foreign buyers in Asia markets. In Washington State, ports of Longview and Vancouver are completing new grain terminals or adding capacity for grain traffic flows from Midwest and Western states to China and North Asian markets. The Port of Longview will finish a $200 million EGT (export grain terminal) this year and Port of Vancouver has a $72 million project underway to serve the grain exports by United Grain Corporation. New port infrastructures and rail linkages will find demand increasing from China for agriculture exports into the future. The U.S. and China output averages per farm are quite different. Annual grain production in the U.S. by average per farm is 114 tons compared to 1.5 tons in China, and annual meat production is 6,750 kilograms per U.S. farm and 156 kilograms in China per farm on average. In terms of produce availability, China has much room to grow. Fluid milk availability per capita in China was only 3.4 gallons and 10.4 gallons in the U.S. in 2008 and for meat in 2008 only 49 kilograms per person was available compared to 71 kilograms per person in the U.S., according to the USDA, National Bureau of Statistics. In March, the PRC National People’s Congress approved the 12th Five Year Plan (2011-2015). This Plan outlines policies and calls for more domestic consumer driven economic growth, but manufactured exports, large infrastructure investments and foreign direct investments will again dominate the next several years as components of growth for gross domestic product (GDP). Until social safety nets are established in China, raising consumption levels will be a challenge as consumers have the highest savings rates in the world and account for only one third of GDP whereas in the U.S.A. two thirds of GDP depends on consumer purchases. The PRC government is promoting imports of consumer goods and agriculture, but not enough to change the U.S. trade deficit with