Soaring price of imported US alfalfa boosts domestic sales

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You can add alfalfa to the list of products affected by the newest US tariffs. Farmers agree that alfalfa is the best food for milk cows. Now, more Chinese cow breeders are turning to the domestically grown kind.

But with 90 percent of China's alfalfa imported from the US, how hard is it to find domestic strains? One man in Huairen city in north China's Shanxi Province says he's found the cash cow.

Zhu Yuze started to plant alfalfa on a large scale in 2017. /CGTN Photo

Zhu Youze has been busy harvesting his alfalfa after the Mid-Autumn Day. He's one happy man, as he has more orders for it this year than ever before. And with the price of domestic dried alfalfa up to 2,000 yuan per ton since June, when it was only 1,500, Zhu is raking in the profits.

"After the newly imposed tariffs, prices of imported US alfalfa have increased from 2,500 yuan per ton to 3,200. It's much more expensive than Chinese alfalfa," Zhu said.

Milk cows that eat alfalfa produce milk with high protein content. /CGTN Photo

Its rich nutritional content makes alfalfa the best forage grass. Cows that eat it produce high quality milk. Zhu has about 1,000 cows of his own, and says Chinese cow breeders used to import large quantities of American alfalfa. But the latest round of tariffs has reversed the market trend.

Zhu said, "Most cow breeders have already reduced their dependence on US alfalfa, some by as much as 80 percent. I feed my cows with my own alfalfa. And I found the cost of making milk can be reduced by 0.15 yuan per kilogram. That adds up to big savings.”

Zhu Yuze bought many advanced agricultural machines to harvest his alfalfa. /CGTN Photo

Zhu also reveals that in the past, local alfalfa planting was often small in scale and relied on manual labor. It led to poor quality, and increased the need for imported alfalfa. But Zhu's latest solution has become his cash cow.

Since last year, Zhu has expanded his total alfalfa planting area to 8 million square meters. He also now tends to it with various large agricultural machines. Those two steps have greatly enhanced Zhu's harvest efficiency, and the quality of his alfalfa. In fact, all of it sold out ahead of this harvest, proving his consumers are happy.

Proper harvesting technique is vital to ensuring the high quality of alfalfa. /CGTN Photo

Zhu has harvested 27,000 tons of alfalfa this year. That will bring him a turnover of more than 50 million yuan.

In his alfalfa field, Zhu looked cheerful and confident.

"Now it seems that supply can't keep up with demand. I think the business is promising. And I plan to triple my alfalfa planting area next year."