China's northeast grain output to fall marginally

Grain output in China's northeast provinces, the country's largest corn and soy growing region, will not fall more than four percent this year despite a severe drought, said a senior Chinese government official.

This year, the three provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, are seeing a harvest of at least 85.5 million tonnes of grains, compared with 89.3 million tonnes in 2008, said Zhang Guobao, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission.

The three provinces, with their grain outputs accounting for 17 percent of the country's total harvest last year, together make up China's largest grain producing region.

Despite a drought earlier in the year in the central part and later in the northeast region, China still anticipates a bumper harvest, the sixth year in a row.

The Chinese government has boosted the farmers' production output through a series of measures such as offering subsidies to grain farmers and purchasing extra grains at set prices.

Meanwhile, analysts have estimated the country's corn and soy output would fall from last year while rice output would be higher.