China reports increase in grain production for 2009

China's total grain output reached 530.8 million tonnes in 2009, edging up 2.1 million tonnes or 0.4% from 2008.

The data was released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently. Included were 123 million tonnes of summer grain, up 2.2% year-on-year, and 374 million tonnes of autumn grain, down 0.6%.

The Central Conference on Rural Work predicted earlier that China's grain production in 2009 would hit a record high of 530.8 million tonnes, which would represent the sixth consecutive year of output growth.