China's soybean imports are set to rise substantially in the next few years, an executive at commodities trader Noble Group said yesterday.

Jaime Teke, global head of structured finance at the firm, which this week agreed an $850-million equity investment from Chinese sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp (CIC), said China had little room to increase its own soybean crop.

"We don't see the conditions are right here in China," he told Reuters on the sidelines of the Latin America China Investors Forum in Beijing. "One of the big problems is irrigation. Definitely, imports of soybeans from Brazil and Argentina will rise substantially.