According to the recently released official data from the Chinese government, in 2021 the country produced 273 million tons of corn, which is 12% more than in 2020. This indicates a return to the production volumes before 2015.

Producer.com writes about it.

In 2015, when Chinese farmers received a huge corn crop and there was a significant surplus, the country's Ministry of Agriculture proposed to reduce the production of the queen of the fields in favor of other crops - legumes, grains and forage.

"It was convenient to forget about this plan after several years of corn auctions, which emptied warehouses, and corn prices rose in 2020," - said in the material.

In the first 10 months of 2021, the country imported 26 million tons of corn, according to Dim Sums. This is three times more than in the same period in 2020 - 7.8 million tons. Some experts point out that this is one of the main reasons for the rise in prices for grains and oilseeds in 2021.

It is noted that the Chinese government has returned to actively stimulating corn production. Chinese President Xi Jinping appears to be concerned about a possible U.S. food embargo, according to the Dim Sums blog.

“We must not let others get in the way of addressing the core issue of national survival, nutrition,” Jinping said in a recent statement.

Chinese farmers planted 107 million acres (43.3 million hectares) with corn in 2021, which is only 4 million acres less than 2015.

That said, MarketsFarm analyst Bruce Burnett is not worried that China will return to its former status as a powerful corn producer with overflowing government crop reserves, even though this is having a significant impact on world prices.

“I do not see this as a permanent surplus that will hang in the markets,” he said.

This is because the demand for corn in China continues to rise steadily due to the country's growing population and improved diets.

It is also noted that China will continue to import corn, in particular due to difficulties in logistics. There is a large geographic gap between where China's corn is grown in the north and where it is consumed by the country's livestock sector in the south, so in many cases it is more profitable to import crops from foreign suppliers such as the United States.

In addition, Mr Burnett said the five-year lull in manufacturing in China is also partly due to unfavorable weather conditions that could re-emerge at any moment.

"If government reserves start to rise again, they can always be depleted by restoring the nationwide E10 ethanol mandate announced in 2017 and then canceled when corn prices began to rise," said a MarketsFarm analyst.

superagronom.com