Insufficient high-quality wheat production capacity, experts call for expanding planting area
During the summer harvest season, it was learned from the “2015 First China High-Quality Wheat Industry Development Forum” held on June 10 that with the rising demand for high-quality wheat from flour and food processing enterprises, the domestic supply gap for high-quality wheat has become prominent, and experts at the forum called for accelerating the breeding of high-quality wheat varieties and expanding the planting area of high-quality wheat to meet the high-quality wheat demand of processing enterprises.
China is the world's largest wheat producer, but the supply of high-quality wheat is somewhat tight. In 2014, the domestic price of high-quality wheat once soared to more than 1.6 yuan/jin, and many flour and food processing enterprises rushed into the market to snap up grain.
Du He, executive vice president and secretary-general of the Nutrition Guidance Committee of the China Food Industry Association, pointed out that in China's annual food industry output value of about 11 trillion yuan, instant food processing using wheat as a raw material accounts for a very large proportion. The gap in high-quality wheat in a major wheat country is very large, which shows that there is a structural contradiction between China's wheat production and the needs of the food industry.
In recent years, China's wheat output has grown slightly between 120 million and 130 million tonnes, but the planting and output of high-quality wheat have shown a declining trend. Insufficient high-quality wheat production capacity has become one of the important factors restricting the sustainable development of China's wheat industry.
Professor Wei Yimin, director of the Processing Research Office of the National Wheat Industry Technology System and deputy director of the National Food and Nutrition Advisory Committee, said at the forum that China's total wheat output and consumption are basically equal, or even slightly in surplus, but the annual import of about 2 million tonnes of high-quality wheat is mainly to meet the needs of processing enterprises. Therefore, optimizing varieties and expanding the proportion of high-quality wheat planting area is an urgent task.
Experts at the forum believed that the path to high-quality wheat requires equal emphasis on good breeding and good cultivation. Good breeding means selecting and breeding wheat varieties more suitable for food processing and modern consumer demand, including morphology, taste, etc.; good cultivation means choosing more suitable planting regions and making full use of advantageous soil, climate and other conditions to produce more high-quality wheat.
It is understood that as early as 2005, the Jinmailang Group took the lead in launching the “Jinmailang High-Quality Wheat Project.” By 2014, the area planted with its promoted high-quality wheat had reached one million mu.
Sun Yunfeng, general manager of the Flour Business Division of Jinmailang Group, told reporters: “We have always been committed to guiding farmers to plant high-quality wheat. Next, Jinmailang will carry out closer cooperation with rural cooperatives, continue to expand high-quality wheat planting, and provide enterprises with high-quality processing raw materials.” In addition, the forum also held in-depth discussions on the distribution and characteristics of China's advantageous high-quality wheat regions, the high-quality wheat belt at 37° north latitude, good wheat and good flour, and the relationship between high-quality wheat and food safety and food quality.