June 21, 2012

China completes 85% wheat harvest

As of June 17, China had reaped over 85% of its winter wheat crops, the Ministry of Agriculture posted on its website on Tuesday (June 19).

As of last Sunday, some 20.27 million hectares of winter wheat crops had been reaped, including 17.87 hectares harvested by combine harvesters.

Anhui and Henan provinces have already completed harvesting, while wheat reaping in other major producing provinces of Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, Shaanxi, Shanxi is drawing to a close.

Wei Zhongsheng, chief economist with Henan provincial agricultural department, earlier said that the province is expected to realize summer grain output rise for a 10th straight year in 2012. Central China's Henan Province yielded 31.3 million tonnes of summer grain in 2011, accounting for nearly 5% of the nation's full year grain production. China's summer grain mainly includes winter wheat and early rice.

However, white ear disease may affect wheat output in east China's Anhui Province.