January 3, 2014
China aims to boost grain production, moderate imports
China struggles to meet goal of growing all wheat and rice it needs as its policymakers plan to bring in ''moderate amounts'' of non-staple food.
The country will likely import more food from overseas as it struggles to meet its target of producing virtually all the grain it consumes, analysts said.
An annual top-level meeting on agriculture last week said that "moderate imports'''' would form part of the national food security strategy. The government has ordered that resources are allocated to ensure adequate supplies of cereals, implying the mainland will rely more on the global market for non-staple foods.
Ma Wenfeng, an analyst at Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultants, said the mainland''s food market was already fairly open to foreign imports, particularly the sale of soy which has been dominated by foreign companies. The new strategy suggested more imports of non-staple foods, he said.
The government issued a policy document on food security in 1996, saying the mainland should produce at least 95% of its grain. The guideline has remained unchanged since.
After last week''s meeting, agriculture minister Han Changfu said the mainland would stick with this goal for the three staple foods - rice, wheat and corn. The country should be producing all of its rice and wheat, he said.
The National Bureau of Statistics said that despite the country''s total grain output was nearly 602 million tonnes last year, up 2% over 2012 and was the 10th consecutive year of increased grain production, imports have still soared.
Customs data shows the mainland imported more than 72 million tonnes of grain in 2012, suggesting the nation was producing only 88% of the grain it needed. An estimated 80 million tonnes of grain were imported last year, Ma said.
Some experts have complained that the food shortfalls have been made worse by the country''s reluctance to embrace genetically modified food, which can increase farm productivity. Quarantine authorities refused 545,000 tonnes of US corn in November and last month because shipments contained an unapproved genetically modified organism (GMO) variety.
Yuan Chongfa, vice-president of the China City Development Academy, said the mainland must ensure it has more than 120 million hectares of farmland to ensure food supplies, as the new leadership pushes forward a massive urbanisation drive.
Ding Li, a senior researcher in agriculture at the Anbound think tank in Beijing, said it was time to drop the production of some food, such as chickens and pigs, to grow more basic crops. Ding said the key to ensuring food security was to build a modern, safe and efficient agricultural industry.
Ma said it was also crucial to improve farm productivity. Germany and France each produced an average of more than 7,000 kilogrammes of wheat per hectare last year, while the mainland produced about 5,000 kilogrammes, Ma said. The US harvested nearly 10,500 kilogrammes of rice per hectare last year, while the mainland produced about 6,700 kilogrammes.