Friday, February 8, 2008

Chinese Grain Yield Unaffected by Heavy Snow Storms

by Richard York

The grain harvest of China for the current year is expected to remain steady despite the heavy snow that has assumed a worsened form as compared to the last five decades. The fact was confirmed by the State Grain Administration or SGA of China. The SGA has said that if there are no more natural disasters, the grain yield for the year will be around 500 million tons. Even the current heavy snow fall will have impact in the grain yield of China for the current year. The head of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Rural Work, Chen Xiwen authorized this fact while speaking to the media.

Though the SGA has not released any details of the Chinese grain reserves, it said that safety limits between the grain reserves and the Chinese consumption maintained in China are much higher than the standards maintained internationally. The SGA is the principal authority on grain yield of China. The SGA also said that Chinese grain production for the year 2007was about 501.5 million tons which was the steady and consecutive grain yield for China even if there was extreme drought for months. The year 2007 thus ended for China in high reserves of grain so there is no need to worry about the grain yield for the current year despite the natural disaster of snow in the country.

The Chinese grain consumption for the year 2006, according to the SGA stood at about 5 million tons and there was a stable growth in the Chinese grain consumption for the year 2007. The gap between the supply and demand of grain for the year 2007 was not very high, according to the SGA. However, the drought that lasted for a considerable amount of time which was also the most severe in a decade in China hampered the grain production. The loss in grain production for the last year in China is estimated at about 37.36 billion kilograms.

The snowstorms began to strike the southern part of China in the middle of January this year but this did not have a major setback for the grain yield. Since most of the winter grain crops in China were located the northern part of China there will be no significant impact on the grain yield for the country. However, considerable effects of the snowstorms were recorded on the production of fresh vegetables, Chen Xiwen of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Rural Work confirmed. The SGA of China also said that since there was an increase in the prices of grain in the second half of the year 2007, it will have some effects in the grain prices for the year 2008.

In the year 2007, the consumer price index or CPI of China shot to 4.8 percent which in turn affected the prices of grain especially soybean that soared to a record high price. Thus, in order to lower the grain prices the Chinese government sought to some measures such as releasing its state grain reserve quotas in the market as well as encouraging the sale of grains secured directly from the farmers at minimum prices.

 

 

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