Agribusiness Reforms in China

China is emerging as an agribusiness giant. Domestic reforms and the readmission of China to GATT will integrate rapidly the massive Chinese agribusiness sector into international markets. China has already become a key player in world wool markets. Developments in relation to wool, therefore, are a harbinger of what is likely to happen in regard to many other agribusiness commodities. This book provides an analysis of how the Chinese are reforming their wool marketing system. Wool is grown mainly by people of minority nationalities who are amongst the poorest in China and who live in the environmentally fragile pastoral region. As a result, wool markets have an impact on social, environmental and developmental issues as well as being of relevance to China's strategic and trade interests. This book therefore, is concerned with many of the most difficult issues confronting Chinese society and its interaction with the world community. By examining these aspects of contemporary China through the case of wool, the authors provide an insight into the impact of the economic reform process on particular social groups and institutions.