China's Annual Grain Loss Reaches 70 Billion Jin; Hidden Waste Should Not Be Underestimated

Starting in 2011, Santai Flour Co., Ltd. in Taihe County, Anhui Province launched a “grain bank” business, providing farmers with grain storage and exchange services, solving the problem of high grain loss during farmers' grain storage. The photo shows the Gaomiao branch of the Santai “Grain Bank”. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Junxi

When it comes to food waste, people tend to focus on the “visible waste” at the dining table, but rarely pay attention to losses in the various stages after grain production. Statistics show that China loses up to 70 billion jin of grain each year in processing, storage and other stages, posing a huge threat to China's food security.

Grain Collection and Storage Becomes a Worry for Farmers

After the summer harvest ended, grain collection and storage became a worry for many farmers. “We can't afford drying equipment, and drying grain is like fighting guerrilla warfare. Some villagers harvested their wheat but couldn't find a suitable drying yard, and then it rained continuously, causing more than 800,000 jin of wheat to go moldy, losing 300,000 yuan all at once. A bumper harvest doesn't mean a bumper income.” said Wang Minzhu, a large-scale grain farmer in Anhui.

At present, about 50% of China's total grain is stored by farming households themselves. Due to backward storage conditions, lack of technical guidance, and the effects of insects, mold and rodents, losses are relatively heavy. Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture show that due to improper post-production handling, farmers lose 7%-11% of grain each year.

In addition to storage, grain waste caused by transportation and processing should not be ignored.

According to Qie Jianwei, former deputy director of the State Administration of Grain, in China's current grain transportation methods, bulk grain transport accounts for about 15%, and most is still transported in bags. During transport, grain must first be bagged, sometimes opened and bulk-loaded into warehouses, and then bagged again when sent to processing plants, causing spillage and leftovers. According to estimates, the loss rate from repeated bagging is about 5%.

The main reason for severe waste in the processing stage is that grain processing enterprises excessively pursue refined, fine and white finished grain, even though this both loses nutrients and significantly reduces the yield rate. Experts point out that in the rice processing stage, each additional polishing step reduces the rice yield by 1%, resulting in an annual loss of more than 7 billion jin of grain.

“China wastes about 50 billion jin of grain at the dining table each year, while losses and waste in storage, transportation, processing and other stages exceed 70 billion jin. But when we usually talk about food waste, we emphasize waste in end consumption more, while ignoring hidden waste in grain production, storage, circulation and other stages.” said Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Increasing Grain Supply and Reducing Losses Must Go Hand in Hand

Since entering the 21st century, China's comprehensive agricultural production capacity has steadily improved, and grain output has achieved “ten consecutive increases.” However, although China's food security is currently guaranteed, in the long run it still faces multiple challenges such as continuously decreasing grain production resources and structural shortages in grain supply, which leaves China's grain supply and demand still in a tight balance.

In order to meet growing domestic demand, China imports more than 100 billion jin of grain each year. According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs, China is already the largest grain importer, and import volumes are increasing year by year.

The food security situation remains severe, further highlighting the seriousness of grain losses. Regarding grain loss rates, experts say developed countries are generally below 3%, developing countries generally around 5%, while China is above 5%, with farmer household grain storage losses reaching 8%.

“Every year we talk about increasing grain output, and invest a lot of manpower and financial resources for that, but we have long overlooked losses caused by improper post-production handling. Increasing grain output requires not only expanding supply but also reducing losses. To safeguard national food security, saving grain and reducing losses is imperative.” said Cao Yang, director of the Storage Office of the National Grain Research Institute.

Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture issued the Notice on Strengthening Work to Reduce Losses in Grain Processing, requiring agricultural product processing management departments at all levels to establish the concept that “reducing losses means increasing production, reducing losses means increasing income, reducing losses means increasing supply, and reducing losses means increasing efficiency.”

Reducing Grain Losses Is a Systematic Project

In Daming, Hebei; Taicang, Jiangsu; Fengtai, Anhui and other places, unlike in the past when they were eager to sell grain, many farmers now choose to deposit grain in “grain banks” to earn interest. But achieving such “conversion” is not easy. Many grain department staff in northern Anhui report that local warehouse types are chaotic and scattered across many points, and many grain depots lack moisture-proof and cooling facilities, making grain losses extremely likely.

“From practices in various places, it can be seen that severe post-production grain losses in China have multiple causes. Objective conditions, policies and measures, material inputs, institutional systems and extensive management are all difficulties in China's effort to create "invisible grain fields."” said Li Guoxiang.

“To solve these problems, fiscal input should be increased, farmers' grain storage conditions should be improved, technologies suitable for farmer grain storage should be developed, the grain circulation system should be accelerated, and transportation losses should be reduced.” said Chen Mingsheng, deputy director of the Economics Research Institute of the Business School of China University of Political Science and Law.

“Reducing grain losses cannot be separated from science and technology, investment, and infrastructure construction. The fundamental solution is to change the concept of grain storage, change the current situation of extensive management, and accelerate the upgrading of grain reserve management toward modernization, green grain storage and intelligent management.” said Zhao Shuanglian, chairman of Sinograin.

Li Guoxiang said that Chinese people should further raise their awareness of cherishing and saving grain. “From a broader perspective, reducing grain losses is essentially a issue of social management, and it also requires a transition from extensive to refined management. This cannot be separated from the improvement of a series of systems and regulations, from more scientific and technological input and infrastructure construction, and even more from changes in people's concepts and awareness.” (Reporter Li Hui)

Brief Commentary

Solving Food Waste with a Holistic Mindset

Abundant grain means stable agriculture, and stable agriculture means a secure nation—for a populous country like China, food security concerns people's livelihood, the economy and politics.

In the face of food security issues, we should adopt this kind of scientific attitude and holistic thinking—we cannot focus only on expanding supply while ignoring reducing losses, nor focus only on the dining table while ignoring waste in storage and processing, and even less can we focus only on hardware investment while ignoring institutional development.

First, awareness of cherishing and saving grain must be strengthened. Looking at every stage of food waste, the root cause lies in people's indifference to cherishing and saving grain and their inner apathy toward the phenomenon of food waste. At present, publicity on cherishing and saving grain is mostly carried out around “World Food Day” or “Grain Love and Food Saving Publicity Week” and other time points. It is infrequent and shallow, and lacks targeted education, criticism and punishment for people and matters that wantonly waste food.

Second, grain prices must be rationalized. At present, China's bulk agricultural products, mainly grain, have entered an era of high prices, but grain prices are still clearly too low. Although there are complex economic and social considerations, when grain prices are so low that they do not conform to economic laws, it will inevitably affect enthusiasm for growing grain and the establishment of awareness of saving grain. Only by rationalizing grain prices can we promote both increased grain production and conservation.

In addition, both funding input and institutional development must be addressed. A modern grain logistics system must be built, bulk grain transportation must be vigorously promoted, advanced and practical storage, loading and unloading, and transportation technologies and equipment must be promoted, and grain logistics losses must be effectively reduced. Technical support and funding input for scientific grain cultivation, storage, transportation and processing must be increased. Research on scientific grain storage must be carried out, and new grain storage models such as grain banks must be accelerated.