The company recently opened a new production facility called Shandong South, in Dezhou, Shandong province, to double its starch production capacity in China.

该公司最近在山东省德州市开设了一家名为山东南的新生产工厂，以使其在中国的淀粉产能翻倍。

"We are well-positioned to cater to this growth with increased starch production capacity and creating winning textures for food and beverage manufacturers," he added.

他补充道：“我们已经做好了应对这一增长的准备，增加了淀粉生产能力，并为食品和饮料制造商创造了获胜的质地。”。

It has made strong investments in agricultural supply chain, starch sugar production and meat production this year.

The $20-million plant will be built on the parcel of 20 hectares in a Special Economic Zone in Snuol district, the ministry said, adding that when completed, the plant will be capable of processing 130,000 tons of cassava starch a year.

In the June 2023 quarter, New Zealand's largest goods export commodities to China were milk powder, butter, and cheese; meat; logs, wood, and wood articles; fruit; and preparations of milk, cereals, flour, and starch which includes infant formula, he said.

- A cargo ship loaded with cassava starch and soda ash set sail from the Qinzhou Port in the Beibu Gulf Port of China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on Tuesday.

Main imports via along the route include pulp, tapioca starch and copper concentrate from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Zhou said raw materials like wood chips, wood pulp and starch imported from ASEAN member states now enjoy preferential tariffs thanks to the RCEP agreement, and this has greatly saved costs for the company.

The Southeast Asian nation had shipped 24 kinds of agricultural products to China, he said in a Facebook post, adding that they included fresh bananas, milled rice, dried cassava chips, cassava starch, dried mangoes, fresh mangoes, dried rubber, cashew nuts, and cocoa powder, among others.

The customs said more than 100 varieties of goods, including standard-gauge railway passenger cars, power lines, and servers were exported from China, and the imported goods included natural rubber, cassava starch, and iron ore, according to the customs.

At a factory laboratory in suburban Beijing, workers are pouring a milky-white substance into a starch fermentation cylinder.

- At a factory laboratory in suburban Beijing, workers are pouring a milk-white substance into a starch fermentation cylinder.

The large level of imports reflects a higher demand for feed crops, driven by the recovery in domestic pork production after the African swine fever outbreaks in 2018 and 2019 and the strong growth of the poultry, dairy and starch sectors.

Compiled by the China Chemical Fibers Association, Donghua University and the China Cotton Textile Association, the report highlights the use of biodegradable fibers produced from starch of crops instead of crude oil.

PLA straws are made of starch extracted from plants such as corns, and biodegradable.