China really short on grain

New variant of swine flu has supposedly knocked their herd back 10 to 15%

Someday look at how much China exports as food products. Meaning a good portion of its food imports are shipped out of the country in various forms. Much like China brings in other raw goods and exports finished products.

So the question then is, suppose China is "short" on food commodities. Does that mean China's population is starving and will pay anything for more raw goods or does it mean China will do less exports of finished food products. Suppose China exports less food products because its "short" on food, does that mean other countries now starve or does it mean those other countries get replace this shortage of products normally exported from China, they come from elsewhere.

It's a lot like China has a steel shortage so I guess that means we don't get any more cheap China rebar in Canada, or perhaps our local production fills the gap.

It's interesting that no one ever mentions that as China's food imports keep going up, so does it food related exports. Don't we have issues with China pork showing up in North America? What happens then if it has a "food shortage". Do people actually starve and so will pay anything.

And, with China owning a lot of food production, like pork processing in the US for example, when China has a low inventory on something are we talking commodities on hand within the boundaries of China, or does that include inventory in China owned entities around the world. It's interesting people think of "China" as a chunk of land defined by its borders and yet don't consider all the other things that "China" owns around the world. How do you count commodities holdings of "China".

And of course the obvious question as SWMan says, how do you trust any of the numbers? I don't care who is stating the numbers, how do you say that particular number is correct. Do you even believe your own Stats an or USDA numbers.