China Grain Output Tops 500 Million Tons, But Discourages Exports

December 23, 2007
Prensa Latina - Havana

Beijing — China's grain output, which includes rice, wheat, corn and soybean, surpassed 500 million tons this year, said an official source on Sunday.

China's Minister of Agriculture Sun Zhengcai said this grain production made 2007 the fourth consecutive year of output increase since 2004.

This result has raised official hopes that a bumper grain output would help slow current price rises in early 2008.

Huge rises in food prices lifted the nation's consumer price index (CPI) to an 11-year high of 6.9 percent in November. Prices of food, which has a 33 percent weighting in CPI, soared 18.2 percent last month.

Zhengcai said the grain supply per capita dropped from 412 kilograms in 1996 to 378 kg last year. Historically, grain output had fallen until 2004 after peaking at 512 million tons in 1998.

In face of rising food prices, China scrapped export rebates for 84 agricultural products on Thursday in effort to discourage exports of farm produce. This, in effect, would help increase domestic supply.

The minister added that China aims to maintain an annual grain output of 500 million tons in 2008.

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