China corn output hits record on expanded acreage

China produced a record corn crop this year, up 4% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday, with an increase in area under cultivation more than compensating for damage caused by summer typhoons.

This year’s output of 288.84 million metric tons matched previously issued forecasts by the agriculture ministry and adds to bumper corn crops from other big global producers, which have weighed on global prices.

Corn production in China, the world’s No. 2 grower, rose as Beijing continued subsidies to farmers planting staple grains, under a push for food security.

Corn acreage rose 2.7%, or 1.15 million hectares, from a year earlier to 44.2 million hectares (109 million acres), the most land sown with the grain since at least 2015.

The government has been steadily reclaiming uncultivated land in provinces such as Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang for planting with staple grains, said Ma Wenfeng, senior analyst at Beijing-based agriculture consultancy Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultancy.

This, combined with large imports, has left the market in oversupply, with prices on a downtrend, Ma said.

The large crop and lower domestic prices will be a boon, however, to Chinese livestock farmers who feed corn to the world’s biggest herd of pigs but have been losing money.

Over the past three months, the most-active January corn futures contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange has declined to 2,490 yuan ($346.91) per metric ton, hovering near its lowest in six months.

The soybean harvest also grew this year, reaching 20.84 million tons, up 2.8% from the year before, the statistics bureau said. Acreage rose 2.2% to 10.5 million hectares.

Rice output fell, however, by 0.9% to 206.6 million tons. Rice competes with soybeans for acreage in the northeast.

Government rice stockpiles are high, giving Beijing room to reduce production as it tries to promote higher oilseed output, said Rosa Wang, analyst at Shanghai JC Intelligence Co Ltd.

Wheat output, largely harvested in the summer, reached 136.6 million tons.

“The national grain output reached another new high, laying a solid foundation for comprehensively promoting rural revitalisation … and making a positive contribution to stabilising the global grain market and maintaining world food security,” said Wang Guirong, director of the statistic bureau’s rural division.

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