September 21, 2009

China's corn production capacities may fall short by 2.5 million tonnes by 2020 as the domestic corn trading keeps increasing, said Li Ming, general manager of China Grain and Oil Co. Ltd. during the third International Corn Industry Conference Thursday (September 17).

By then, China may need to import corn to meet the domestic demand, said Li.

The country's corn marketing areas are in the south while the major producing areas in the northeast. Driven by the rising demand for feedstock, China's cross-region trading for corn will continue to grow. The corn distribution volume is forecast to top 157 million tonnes in 2020, said Li.

Now China is a corn exporter and its corn capacity is surplus.

Last year saw the country produced 165.5 million tonnes of corn and exported 4.92 million tonnes.