The relative prices expressed in US$ per short ton for corn, soybeans and soybean meal, July delivery, were downloaded from the Dalian Commodity Exchange website reflecting major contracts during the week ending Friday July 17th. These values were compared with the spot price at close of trading for July 17th indicated in parentheses.

* short ton with exchange rate CNY7.14=US$1

Soybean meal on the Dalian exchange declined by $88 per ton since mid-June as additional supplies were released from inventory and supplemented by imports.

Soybean meal was down $22 per ton. It is evident that due to the higher price of feed, producers of both eggs and conventional broilers in China are at a disadvantage in production cost compared to the U.S. and Brazil. Eggs traded on the Dalian exchange at 37 cents per dozen.