Agricichina新闻警报

China has become the largest soybean importer in the world and its import volume of the product continues to increase rapidly in 2012. As a matter of fact, China's high dependence upon soybean import is difficult to change. The question is that will China be a large corn importer in the near future?

China's import volume of corn has increased sharply in recent years, but it still accounts for a very small share compared with the total corn consumption in China. However, some overseas companies believe that China's corn import will continue to increase quickly in the coming years and it is expected to become the biggest corn importer in the world. For instance, Japanese company Marubeni announced in late May that it will buy U.S. grain company Gavilon at USD3.6 billion, targeting China's growing demand for corn.

However, China holds a different view on corn import.  Han Changfu, Minister of Agriculture of China, recently published an article in People's Daily, saying that China should keep self-sufficiency in corn supply. Mr. Han revealed that China will try to increase corn planting area and unit yield to meet the growing domestic demand for corn.