The surge in grain imports should be viewed with an open attitude

Data released by China Customs on Friday shows that in the first 7 months of this year, China imported a cumulative total of 11.34 million tons of grain and grain flour, an increase of 80.7% over the same period last year.

The types of grain and grain flour imported by China mainly include wheat, paddy rice and rice, corn, barley, and so on. Among them, wheat, paddy rice and rice, and corn are China's main staple food products.

Among grain imports, wheat and barley are relatively stable, imports of paddy rice and rice are relatively small, and the volume of corn imports is unstable, but corn imports show a trend of gradual increase. From January to June, China imported 2.57 million tons of wheat, accounting for 26% of grain imports; followed by 2.43 million tons of barley, accounting for 25% of grain imports; and 2.07 million tons of corn, accounting for 21% of grain imports.

Because the increase in grain imports compared with the same period last year is relatively large, some media have raised concerns about domestic food security. Shennong believes that an open attitude should be maintained toward the current grain imports.

First, China's annual grain output is about 530 million tons. Even if 25 million tons are imported this year, the import dependence will be less than 5%, which is still within an acceptable range.

Because China's land and water resources are limited, the growth rate of domestic grain production is gradually declining, while grain consumption, especially feed consumption, has grown relatively quickly in recent years. Therefore, when international market grain prices are relatively low, appropriately increasing grain imports is reasonable.

Second, from the perspective of the categories of various grain imports, barley and wheat account for a relatively large proportion of imports. Barley is rarely grown domestically, and like soybeans, the shortfall is relatively large and import dependence is high, but barley has limited impact on domestic food and feed use.

Wheat imports are more about adjusting domestic varieties. As people's living standards improve, more appropriate amounts of “strong-gluten and weak-gluten” wheat are imported from abroad to meet the demand for processing bread, cakes, and high-quality foods.

Therefore, although grain imports have grown relatively quickly this year, import dependence is still within an acceptable range, and imported grain is used more to supplement shortages in domestic varieties. When international grain prices are at a relatively low level, there is no need for excessive concern about increasing grain imports.