China's total grain output ranks first in the world, yet this type of crop still requires large-scale imports

Judging by China's current grain production situation, achieving self-sufficiency would be no problem. After all, China's total grain output already ranks first in the world, and each year there is still a considerable surplus of grain that can be used for industrial processing. However, China's grain crop varieties are unbalanced. If the Chinese people want to eat well, then imports become unavoidable. Take soybeans, for example: the degree of dependence on foreign sources is as high as 80 percent, and China has no ability at all to be self-sufficient in this crop. To be precise, it is partial self-sufficiency that is achieved.

Here we can look at last year's customs data. According to the statistics, grain imports for the whole year reached 130 million tons, an increase of 13.9% over the previous year. Of this, cumulative soybean imports reached 95.53 million tons, an increase of 11 million tons. It can be said that the increase was basically all accounted for by soybeans, while for China's other grains the import volumes were very small, totaling only 35 million tons. As for wheat and rice, imports were only just over 4 million tons each. It is worth noting that while China was importing, it was also exporting: in 2017, grain exports for the whole year totaled more than 2.8 million tons. Even soybeans, which China imports in large quantities, were exported at 110,000 tons.

From the figures above it can also be seen that the imported grain is mainly oilseed crops, while the proportion of imports in staple foods is still very small. The import proportion for rice is less than 2.7%, and wheat imports account for 3.3%. It can be said that the self-sufficiency rates for rice and wheat are both above 96%, so staple food supply is still very well guaranteed. If we speak of China's grain self-sufficiency, only part of it has hidden risks. For example, this year the state has already been vigorously promoting soybean cultivation in the Northeast region, and soybean subsidies have also been raised to more than 200 yuan per mu. In the future, the degree of dependence on foreign sources for soybeans will also gradually decline.

The above is a bit of perspective shared with you by Science Promoting Agriculture, and we hope it is helpful to you.