Agribusiness Reforms in China

This book examines many of the most difficult issues confronting Chinese society and its interaction with the world community. By examining these aspects of contemporary China through the case of wool, the authors provide first hand insights into the detailed impact of the economic reform process on particular social groups and institutions.

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China is emerging as an agribusiness giant. Domestic reforms and the readmission of China to GATT will integrate rapidly the massive Chinese agribusiness sector into international markets. China has already become a dominant player in world wool markets. Developments in relation to wool, therefore, are a harbinger of what is likely to happen in regard to many other agribusiness commodities. This book, published in collaboration with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), provides a detailed analysis of how the Chinese are reforming their wool marketing system. Wool is grown mainly by people of minority nationalities who are among the poorest in China and who live in the environmentally fragile pastoral region. As a result, wool markets have an impact on social, environmental and developmental issues as well as being of major relevance to China’s strategic and trade interests. This book, therefore, is concerned with many of the most difficult issues confronting Chinese society and its interaction with the world community. By examining these aspects of contemporary China through the case of wool, the authors provide first hand insights into the detailed impact of the economic reform process on particular social groups and institutions. Most of the earlier literature on economic reforms in China has concentrated on general economic reforms and sector-wide or industry-wide effects.