Wednesday, 24 September 2014

Are the Chinese better farmers than us?

I now have a couple of newspaper stories suggesting that the Chinese think they can farm better than the locals. The latest one was this one, targeting the dairy industry -

http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/business/dairy/chinas-dairy-churn-we-can-get-more-milk-out-of-your-cows/story-fnkeqg0i-1227061082840
Greener pastures: Ningbo Dairy Group vice-president Harry Wang, left, and owner Yin Chong

Presumably they will not be constrained by lack of capital - that will be a good start to doing a better job. The other key seems to be their plan to bring in Chinese workers, who may work harder for less money, which would also help.

A similar story was published about the Beidahuang Group's Ongerup plans -

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/24193062/china-riding-on-sheeps-back/
China riding on sheep s back

Again, with plenty of capital to achieve the economies of scale, together with their own labour force, they would be off to a good start.

From previous attempts by outside investors, we might have the advantage of local knowledge, but this may not always be the case. You could argue that sometimes outsiders have been more innovative than locals such as newland farmers in Western Australia several decades ago, who pioneered innovation such as no-till. Our challenge will be to continue such innovation, without abandoning lessons already learned.

No comments:

Post a Comment