The corn issue is becoming increasingly important for China as the population’s wealth grows

Corn, not rice or wheat, is the largest crop in China, and if the economy continues to grow and living standards rise, the country’s people will eat more meat, and the livestock industry will be in dire need of feed corn.

China’s agricultural sector is developing rapidly, and it pays special attention to corn, both in terms of breeding and innovative methods of growing using digitalization tools. The goal is to reduce the gap in the yield of the crop obtained in China and, for example, in the United States. Northeastern China, where 40 percent of the country’s corn crop is grown, has yields that are about two-thirds to three-quarters lower than in the U.S. Corn Belt. In addition, with growing corn yields, China needs to increase its grain storage network, given the increase in domestic production and imports.

In China, the consumption of corn will increase from 223 mln tonnes to 235 mln tonnes in 2024/25 MY, according to the analysts of the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the USDA. The corn prices in China fell to the three-year record low in the first seven months of 2024 and are expected to remain low in the nearest future: “Lower corn prices will also contribute to increased utilization in the processing sector compared to previous years.”

In the first seven months of 2024, the capacity utilization rate of corn processing companies increased from 53% to 61%. In 2024-25, the corn processing industry is expected to show an increase in profitability due to lower corn prices.

“The forecast of corn production in 2024/25 MY is 293 million tons, which is slightly lower than previous estimates due to floods, but still higher than in previous years. Imports are estimated at 20 million tons, which is 1 million tons less than the September USDA estimate. The Chinese government is promoting local production and has recently launched a campaign to increase grain production capacity by 50 million tons by 2030,” the analytical review notes.

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Tags: China, corn