Buenos Aires, June 22 (OsterDowJones) - A ship carrying Argentinesoybean exports to China is disembarking normally in the southern Chineseport of Shenzhen, despite media reports to the contrary, Juan CarlosMorelli, Argentina's ambassador to China, said in a local radio interviewTuesday.On Monday, media reports said China's General Administration ofQuality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, or AQSIQ, had rejected ordetained a 50,000 metric-ton shipment of Argentine soybeans because itcontained an unacceptable amount of fungicide.The news sparked concern that China, which had recently rejected anumber of Brazilian soybean shipments for similar reasons, would causeproblems for Argentine exporters.However, Morelli denied that any Argentine ships were having problemsunloading their goods."The AQSIQ has just confirmed that the ship in question isdisembarking its cargo normally and that, up until now, there has been notype of detention or delay of the cargo," Morelli said in an interviewwith Radio Uno.Morelli was asked by the Radio Uno interviewer, "So this problem hasbeen solved?""There is no problem," Morelli replied.China is the world's No. 1 soybean importer, buying around 20 milliontons of soybeans annually.Argentina, the No. 3 soybean exporter, shipped about 6 million tons ofsoybeans to China in 2003, making China the single most important buyer oflocal agricultural goods last year.Argentine President Nestor Kirchner is scheduled to visit China at theend of this week to boost commercial ties between the two nations.Kirchner will be accompanied by more than 250 representatives ofArgentina's private sector, including a large delegation of agribusinessleaders.

EIU ViewsWire World -- 06/21/04 - There has been an unexpected reductionin demand for soybeans, principally as a result of developments in China.The Chinese government has taken a number of measures to cool the rate ofeconomic growth, with the result that margins for crushers have becomepoor. Consequently, contracts have been cancelled and this has led toreduced expectations of import levels during the remainder of the 2003/04(October-September) season. There has also been some tightening of importregulations, which has acted as a further brake on import volumes. Smallvolumes of imports are expected during the third quarter of 2004, althoughmost observers anticipate that imports will again pick up during the lastquarter of 2004.

PETALING JAYA, June 22 (Bernama) -- Malaysian palm oil price is expectedto be higher due to the possible shortage in production of the commodity,Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA) chief executive officer M.R.Chandran said.

KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 (Bernama) -- North Korea is keen on having a countertrade arrangement with Malaysia in its quest to buy more palm oil from thecountry.

23/6/04 - PALM Oil Refiners Association of Malaysia (Poram) chairman ErKok Leong has called on industry players to produce good quality crudepalm oil (CPO), as this is imperative for the production of good qualityfinished palm products.

23/6/04 - SINDORA Bhd is reducing its dependency on the timber-relatedbusiness by further developing its oil palm business division.

BANGKOK POST 21/6/2004- Despite an earlier plan to expand areas used forgrowing rubber by a million rai, the Agriculture Ministry yesterdayannounced a scheme to increase oil palm cultivation from two to 10 millionrai within 25 years. This would involve areas of land that are currentlybeing used to produce rubber.

Monday June 21, 2004 - MALAYSIA hopes to sell up to 600,000 tonnes ofcrude palm oil (CPO) to emerging markets in Russia and Poland in the nextfew years, according to Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA) chairmanSabri Ahmad.

June 18 2004 - CRUDE palm oil (CPO) prices may rebound to RM2,000 a tonneby year-end, due to good demand globally and low stockpile of the world’sother 16 edible oils.

Jun 18 2004 - FELDA'S highly diversified palm oil related businesses arepoised to be the benchmark for those in the global palm oil industry, saidgroup chairman Tan Sri Dr Mohd Yusof Noor.