Chinahas set a primary target of 95% self-sufficiency in four key grains: wheat, rice, soya beans and corn. Nevertheless in case current trend continues, China will become leading importer of staple foods with its constantly growing population of 1.3 billion people. Country is currently the leading producer of wheat and rice and second largest (after U.S.) grower of corn.

In 2010 China imported as much as 17% of grains domestic production which totaled to 95 million tons. In 2011 China is seen to increase its demand in feedstock and reach the record level of imports. It is essential to note the general trend of growing dependency of China on such major food exporters as Brazil, Argentina and U.S. In the case with U.S. it is more likely to become a stabilizing factor as China constantly purchases U.S. treasury bonds and other U.S. assets, therefore interdependence between these countries is becoming stronger.

In terms of self-sufficiency, China has done a remarkable effort to maintain high level of grain production, which was seen to rise by four times since 1950 till 2011. 21% of global population and only 8.5% of arable land and 6.5% of global supply are the main constrains to the government policy, yet Chinese Communist Party rule is greatly contributing to further development and growth. During 2010 most of the imports of grains were used for the crises reserves, which is an impressive 40% of total production of grain in the country.

The last fact that requires specific attention on this topic is the fact that the farmland in China currently is being under potential threat of cities’ and factories’ spread. Growing demand in food supplies for China is seen as a potential issue for the major importers in the world, resulting in certain expectancy trends that trigger growing prices of commodities on the global scale.

UkrAgroConsult