June 23, 2012

China's grain self-sufficiency to stabilise amid import hikes

The government of China has remained with its policy of requiring local grain production to sustain the country with imports just used to balance the market, said Chen Mengshan, chief economist and spokesman of the Ministry of Agriculture, on Thursday (June 21).

Since last year, the country's staple grain crops including wheat, corn, and rice had seen a significant rise in imports despite bumper harvests.

Chen noted that such an increase was mainly boosted by booming demand. Meanwhile, affected the European debt crisis, international agricultural products prices had been falling and there was now a big disparity with homegrown grain prices. The bargain buying also stimulated imports.

However, compared with domestic grain output, imports accounted for only a very small proportion of consumption. In 2011, imports of wheat, corn and rice were less than 2% of the domestic total production.