January 26, 2007

China's 2006 corn processing capacity rises to 70 million tonnes

China's annual corn processing capacity rose to 70 million tonnes in 2006 from 50 million tonnes a year earlier, a senior statistics official said Thursday (Jan 25).

The volume of corn processed was nearly 35 million tonnes last year, compared with more than 25 million tonnes in 2005, said Xie Fuzhan, commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics, at a State Council, or Cabinet, press conference.

The increase in the amount of corn processed helped to push up China's grain prices, despite the continued rise in grain output over the past three years, Xie said.

In Jilin, China's largest corn producing province, the prices of average quality corn were quoted at RMB1,080-1,160 a tonne in the week ended Jan 24.