February 10, 2012

Cold weather to have little effect on Chinese wheat

Soil moisture in North China's winter wheat is good and the sharp temperature drop will only have minimal impact on the overall harvest, local news reported on Tuesday (Feb 7).

Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and northeastern Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces have seen extreme cold weather recently, with temperature in some areas slumping to 40 degrees centigrade below zero.

Experts suggest that north China's wheat growing areas use manuring and covering measures to protect winter wheat against freezing weather.

Now winter wheat crops in central China's Henan Province, the biggest wheat production base in the country, are growing well as higher average temperature provides favorable weather conditions, according to the report.

The report also noted that rapeseed crops in central Hubei and Hunan provinces were still in the over-wintering period and basically free from impact of low temperature and rainy weather.

Wheat, rapeseed oil and early rice futures on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange have risen significantly in the past several trading days boosted by the domestic supportive policy, improving global macro-economic environment and investors' worries over global extreme weather.