China is increasing the purchases of basic food products, millions of tons claking rice and grain into the state reserve, the size of which exceeds the aggregate reserves of all other countries of the world together, writes Finanz.ru.
According to Nikkei, with reference to the assessment of the US Ministry of Agriculture, China keeps in warehouses of 69% of world reserves of Mais, 60% rice, 51% of wheat and more than 30% of soybeans. Over the past decade, this share has grown about 20 percentage points. In 2020, China purchased food to a record $ 98.1 billion, increasing imports by 22% per year and 360% over the past 10 years.
Food Propeses in China have reached the highest level, the head of the National Administration of Zin Yuyun grain administration said in November. “Our wheat reserves cover needs for a year and a half,” he said, adding that the country has no “absolutely no food problems.”
One of the largest warehouses, where grains and beans are stored in 310 giant silos, located in the port of Dalian in the north-west of the country. Mais, wheat and soybeans are delivered to from the United States and Brazil, the supply of which increased 2-12 times in the last five years.
“The accumulation of reserves in China is one of the reasons for the increase in prices” for food in the world, says Akio Shibata, President of Natural Resource Research Institute in Tokyo.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated the growth of world food prices in November by 27.3%. The organization tracks prices for 95 major food products. The grain due to the Chinese pump rose by 23.2%, vegetable oil – by 53%, dairy products – by 19.1%, meat – by 17.6%, sugar – by 40%. According to the senior researcher, University of Warwick Alistair Smith, the food is becoming more expensive at the speed that the world did not see half a century – from 1973-74.
“If we take into account real prices, then buy food in the world market is now harder than almost any year since the 1961, when the UN began to lead statistics,” says Smith. All due to the stagnation of agriculture in China, soil poisoning and tightening the peasants to major cities, which leads to the inability of the country to feed themselves alone.