CHINA faces great pressure in securing its food supply in the next five years due to accelerating domestic demand, according to a senior agricultural official Saturday.
Chen Xiaohua, a vice agricultural minister, said he expected China s consumption of grains to grow by 4 billion kilograms a year between 2011 to 2015.
Consumption of vegetable oil would grow by 800,000 tons a year over that period, while meat demand would rise by 1 million tons annually.
Our country is facing great pressure in the supply of agricultural products, Shanghai Securities News quoted Chen as saying at an agricultural meeting.
To meet increasing demand, Chen said the government would try to boost food supply through policy measures including higher investment spending and subsidies for farming activities.
The government is wary of any strains to China s food supply because that could intensify already high consumer inflation, which ran at a year-on-year pace of 4.6 percent in December, not far off November s 28-month high of 5.1 percent.(SD-Agencies)
