China's corn imports last year decreased by 20.4% to 2.6 million tonnes compared with the year before, while in December imports totalled 607,201 tonnes, down 26% from the same month in 2013, customs data showed. The lower figures were attributed to Beijing's rejection of some 1.2 million tonnes of genetically modified Viptera corn shipped from the US last year.

Corn imports in 2014 from the US alone was down 65.4% year on year to 1.03 million tonnes.

Last December, however, China had an about-face in its policy by approving imports of the GM corn developed by Syngenta, which is also known as MIR 162. Industry analysts don't see, though, a dramatic rise in China's corn imports this year as concerned authorities have delayed the issuance of the 2015 import quotas. "Mills are still waiting for import quotas," said Zhang Yan, an analyst with Shanghai JC Intelligence Co. Ltd.

The reason for the delay, some analysts believe, is the huge domestic corn stocks, which are at a record high level and which China is trying to sell off before it allows mills to buy overseas. These analysts even predict that corn imports will plummet this year.

DDG imports rise

Imports of distillers' dried grains (DDGs), a by-product of corn, rose 35.3% to 5.4 million tonnes in 2014 but in December imports decreased by a massive 95% to 26,210 tonnes, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.

China is the world's top buyer of DDGs and gets almost all of its imports from the US, the world's largest exporter.

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Ukraine, meanwhile, became China's second-largest exporter of corn as shipments from the Eastern European country rose 785% to nearly 1 million tonnes compared with 2013, according to the General Administration of Customs.