China's rice area at 30.37 million hectares; rapeseed output expected to exceed level of 7 years ago

China's rice area reaches 30.37 million hectares According to estimates by the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2015 China's rice planting area increased by 0.2% over the previous year, reaching 30.37 million hectares. Among this, this year's early rice planting area was flat compared with the previous year, at about 5.8 million hectares or so. If calculated based on the per-unit yield trend of recent years, 2015 early rice output could reach a level of about 34.5 million tons. Statistics show that from May last year to now, the total transaction volume of the three types of rice was 6.79 million tons, of which early rice transactions were 810,000 tons, middle and late rice transactions were 3.32 million tons, and japonica rice transactions were 2.66 million tons. Before the new grain comes to market, the remaining policy-related rice volume is still relatively large, and the pressure on the market remains fairly significant.

At present, various types of rice are at different growth stages. Among them, early rice is at the tillering-to-jointing stage. As for single-season rice, because its distribution areas are relatively wide, parts of Heilongjiang and Hebei have entered the transplanting stage, the Sichuan Basin and central Yunnan are at the transplanting-and-reviving-to-tillering stage, and most of the Jianghuai region is still at the sowing-and-seedling-raising stage.

China's rapeseed output expected to halve compared with 7 years ago According to industry insiders, from 2008 to 2015, Anhui's rapeseed area decreased by 60% to 70%, and annual rapeseed output fell from a peak of about 1.5 million tons to about 500,000 tons now. Hubei is still the largest rapeseed-producing region in China. In 2008, Hubei's rapeseed planting area was about 17 million mu, with output of about 2.19 million tons; this year Hubei's rapeseed planting area is expected to be 9.6 million mu, with output of about 1.06 million tons, a decline of more than 50%, similar to Anhui. In 2008, the national annual rapeseed output was 12 million-13 million tons, a figure the oilseed industry still relatively recognizes. Current total output is expected to have declined by about half compared with 2008.