May 9, 2012

China's 2011/2012 corn imports may reach five million tonnes

China's corn imports was forecast to touch five million tonnes for 2011/2012, against the April estimate of four million tonnes, based on the latest data released by Bric Global (Beijing) Agricultural Consultant Ltd. on Tuesday (May 8).

Bric also predicted that the country's corn planting area will be expanded to 35 million hectares in 2012, up 3.5% on year. Meanwhile, corn output was expected to hit 191.50 million tonnes for 2012/2013.

Bric will sustain its earlier estimation of 14.75 million tonnes in corn consumption. Given the slowdown of China's corn deep-processing industry for 2011/2012 and government's control efforts on deep processing companies, it was estimated that processing industry will consume 55 million tonnes of domestic corn supply for 2011/2012, down one million tonnes from the previous year.

The customs data shows that from October 2011 to March 2012, China imported 2.86 million tonnes of corn and exported 50,000 tonnes of corn. Meanwhile, it is estimated the 2011/2012 corn import will amount to five million tonnes, up one million tonnes from the previous month's forecast.

The shortage of corn supply will shift China into a net import country for corn, as 2012/2013 annual corn import is expected to reach six million tonnes.