China is expected to harvest a record cereals crop this year as most harvests escaped damage from the worst flooding in a decade, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said.
The country s overall output of grains will rise to 486.1 million metric tons from 483.4 million tons in 2009, boosted by higher corn and rice production, the Rome-based UN agency said in a report dated Aug. 28 and published on its website today.
Regions throughout China, including Guangdong, Chongqing and Hubei, experienced floods from May to August, the FAO said. A total of 13 million hectares (32 million acres) of farmland was damaged, with locally severe crop losses, the agency said.
Despite the localized crop losses to floods and food difficulties experienced by the affected population, the overall cereal supply situation in the country remains satisfactory, FAO said.
Chinese production of rice, the staple for the majority of the population, is forecast to climb to 196.6 million tons from 195.1 million tons, FAO said. Harvest of the early rice crop, which accounts for about 20 percent of annual paddy production, was completed in July, according to the group.
Corn, Wheat
This year s corn harvest was completed in southern areas of China in August and is ongoing in northern parts, the report said. Output is forecast to climb to 166 million tons from 164 million tons in 2009, FAO said.
China s wheat crop is forecast to drop to 114 million tons this year from 115.1 million tons in 2009. The winter-wheat harvest, which accounts for about 95 percent of China s output of the grain, was completed in June, while the spring-planted crop has just been gathered, according to FAO.
Private companies are allowed to purchase wheat this year at official minimum purchase prices, and that s expected to make the wheat market more competitive and favorable to farmers, according to FAO. In previous years, the government was the sole buyer, according to FAO.
July prices for Indica rice, the staple grain, were about the same level as a year ago, according to the UN agency.
Faced with soaring international food and fuel prices and inflationary pressures since 2006, China has implemented a series of policy measures and has effectively stabilized domestic cereal prices and markets, FAO said.
