March 7, 2007

China begins trial production of corn in Philippines
 

China's major corn-producing region has begun a trial programme to grow corn in the Philippines, Lv Weifeng, party secretary of the Agriculture Bureau in Heilongjiang province, said Wednesday.

Provincial companies will develop a total of 133,333 hectares to plant with corn there, Lv said on the sidelines of the National People's Congress.

China is one of the world's largest corn exporters, but many analysts have predicted the country will become a net importer of corn as early as this year, amid rising demand from the industrial sector, as well as higher feed consumption.

Lv said favourable weather conditions in the Philippines was the main reason the government chose to grow crops there.

China will begin developing 200,000 hectares of farmland in the Philippines this year for rice and corn production, in an investment that will require about 4 billion Philippine pesos (US$80 million), Philippine Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said late last year.

Beidahung Group, the corporate arm of China's Heilongjiang provincial government, is keen on developing 100,000 hectares of land for rice production and another 100,000 hectares for corn, Yap said.

China exported 3.07 million tonnes of corn last year, down 64 percent on-year. It also imported 65,217 tonnes of corn during the same period, mainly from the US.