January 18, 2011
China's 2010-11 corn import estimated at one million tonnes
China will likely import about one million tonnes of corn in the crop year ending September 30, compared with last year's shipments of 1.5 million tonnes, the Chinese Grain Network said Friday (Jan 15).
The country may remain a net corn importer this crop year as government price-control operations have diminished its corn reserves, the China Grain Reserves Corp-owned consultancy added.
Corn consumption this year will increase 2.7% to 163 million tonnes, it said, adding that output in 2009-10 rose 1.1% to about 166 million tonnes.
The figure is lower than the state-controlled China National Grain & Oil Information Centre's estimate of 172.5 million tonnes of output in 2009-10.
The consultancy's corn import estimate is far lower than forecasts by other agriculture analysts of 5-7.5 million tonnes.
The government holds about seven million tonnes of corn stocks, equivalent to less than one month of consumption, after it sold about 30 million tonnes at weekly auctions last year, analysts said.
The China Corn Network said last week that China will not import large amounts of corn until margins improve, as domestic supply is stable and imports are unprofitable for traders due to current high prices, while imports will also be limited by rules that restrict the use of genetically-modified corn in China to animal feed.
